(lass 
Book 




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TDE 



LAST SEVEN YEARS 



LIFE OF II E N R Y CLAY. 



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17 



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iH H I[ CD i^r 



TEffi 



LAST SEVEN YEARS 



OF THE 



LIFE OF HEMY CLAY. 



BY 



y 

CALVIN COLTON, LL.I)., 

FB0FE8S0B OP PDBLIO ECONOMY, T P. I N I T Y COLLEGE. 





• • 

• • • 

••• 


/ 




NEW YORK 


,0- 


HED 


BY A . S . B . 


A.RNI 


51 AND 53 JOHN STREET. 




1856. 






N;. A 





E3 



4- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the j'car 1856, by 

A. S. BARNES & CO., 

In the Clerk's OESce of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



BTEREOTTPKD BY 

THOMAS B. SMITH. 
82 & 84 Beekman Street, N. T. 



PRIUTHD BY 

GEORGE W WOOD, 
61 John St. 



PREFACE, 



It is now in the eleventh year since the author published the Life and 
Times of Henry Clay, in two vuhimes, bringing liis biography and history 
down to tlie end of tlie Presidential campaign of 1844. The author spent 
tlie winter of 1844-45 in daily communication with Mr. Clay at Lexing- 
ton, to collect materials for that work from Mr. Clay's papers, and from 
his own lips. Although Mr. Clay did not pretend to dictate to the author, 
as to the method of that work, he was kind enough to read the proof- 
sheets, to see that it contained no errors. From the day of the publication 
of the Life and Times to the present, the autiior has never found occasion 
to make any corrections, except of verbal errors. He does not deny that 
he has seen how he raiglrt have improved the work in method, so as to 
make it more interesting. In the present volume ho has endeavored to 
avail himself of such reflections. 

Besides having access to Mr. Clay's papers in the winter of 1844-45, 
and obtaining his own views of his life and times, by personal communi- 
cations with himself for that purpose, Mr. Clay, on the author's departure 
from Lexington, in the spiing of 1845, gave him facilities for collecting 
his own letters, in different quarters, as it was never his custom to preserve 
copies of them. In 1853 the author spent some weeks at Ashland, on in- 
vitation of Thomas II. and James I>. Clay, to re-examine Mr. Clay's papers 
and corrospoiidence, the whole of which passed through his hands, with a 
view to a publication of Mr. Clay's Private Corresi)ondence, a volume of ' 
which was given to the public in November, 1855. In 1854 the author 
brought Mr. Clay's life down, from 1844 to the time of his death, in a 
single chapter of forty-two pages — veiy much condensed, of course — as a 
com])lement to the second volume of the Life and Times, not knowing then 
that he would ever be able to do more. But subsequent reflection, and 
solicitations from quarters worthy of great respect, led the author to the 
conclusion, that th6 last seven years of Mr. Clay's life demanded an elabo- 
rate work of at least one volume, and at the request of the publishers of the 
other three volumes, he undertook the task ; and here it is. 

The more the author examined this portion of Mr. Clay's life, the more 
interested he became, until he found it altogether, as seemed to him, the 



VI PREFACE. 

most important period of that great statesman's career. He will be dis- 
appointed, if it should not prove very interesting, as well as very instruct- 
ive, to the American people — not from the manner, but from the matter 
of the vrork. The position which Mr. Clay occupied in the Compromise 
of 1850, the manner in which he conducted that almost superhuman en- 
deavor, the zeal and perseverance with which he sustained it, the doctrine 
which he laid down on the subject of slavery in the States and Territories, 
in so many forms, embracing the entire scope of its past, present, and 
future, will, it is believed, prove to be of intense interest, in the present 
state of the country, and for a long period yet to come. Mr. Clay is no 
mean authority on this question ; and as he recedes in the distance, sepa- 
rated from the American people by the grave, the weight of his name will 
impart to his doctrine greater attraction, and a more effective power. 

The author has traveled over the record of that great debate on the 
Compromise measures of 1850, and selected from the Congressional Globe 
such passages as he thought would rightly and fully represent Mr. Clay on 
the important subjects which he handled in the Senate in that year. These 
numerous extracts will be found in the Appendix, together witli a variety 
of other matter of very great interest. As is not usual, the Appendix to 
this volume will, probably, be found equally interesting and instructive as 
the main body of the w'ork, if not more so. 

Mr. Clay's political relations, in the latter part of his life, are more or 
less developed, both in the Text and in the Appendix ; and some of them 
in a manner and to an extent never before presented. The fall of the 
Whig party for deserting Mr. Clay and abandoning his principles, will 
probably attract some attention. The contribution fi'om Thomas B. Steven- 
son, Esq., in the last fifty pages of the volume, opens a new and interesting 
chapter of history. It will not be thought strange, that Mr. Clay's lofty, 
frank, generous, and confiding mind should have been Avounded at the 
treatment he received at the hands of the Philadelphia Wliig Convention, 
in 1848, when he was placed in a false position there, by a majority of the 
delegation from his own State, and by the delegation from Ohio en masse, 
with the exception of a single individual. If Mr. Clay could have foreseen 
that these delegations would violate the wishes of their constituents, he 
never w^ould have consented that his name should go into the Convention. 
As Mr. Stevenson intimates, there is an unwritten story of Kentucky, 
like that Avhich is here given of <^hio ; for Avhich, if we might judge 
from Mr. Clay's letter to the Louisville Committee,* there is some interesting 
material. Mr. Clay had the best reasons of common good fiiith for rel\ ing 
on the States of Kentucky and Ohio in Convention. It was a point of 
honor and of political integrity; and a man who had deserved so well of 
bis country, because he had served it so well, should not have been placed 
in such a position by bad faith. It was a point on which ^Ir. Clay had a 
right to be sensitive. It was morallv impossible he should bo otherwise. 

* Private Correspondence, page 566. 



PREFACE. VU 

He was forced iuto that position by iinportimity, and then — we will not 
say what. 

Mr. Stevenson's contribution stands by itself, and speaks for itself. It 
was offered under the assurance that it would be published elsewhere, if not 
here ; and it was accepted to occupy this place as his own compilation, 
and on his own sole responsibility. Knowing that he sustained very inti- 
mate and confidential relations with Mr. Clay, and that Mr. Clay re- 
quested him to have an eye on this portion of history, the author could 
do no less than welcome his contribution. It will be seen to be an entirely 
new chapter. 

This volume, as will be seen, naturally occupies the third place in the 
author's works on Mr. Clay, and the Private Correspondence the fourth, 
althougli the latter was previously published — embracing, as a whole. The 
Life and Correspondence of Henry Clay. The author proposes to edit Mr. 
Clay's speeches, in two volumes, with an historical introduction at the head 
of each speech, which will make a work of six volumes, uniform, and which, 
when complete, will comprise the Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of 
Henry Clay. This volunie is entitled the Last Seven Years of Mr. Clay's 
life, as being appropriate to that distinct and important period of his career. 

C. COLTON. 

New York, May 1st, 1856. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I, 



PAQB 

A Retrospect. Resumption of this work after ten years. — Interview between 
Mr. Clay and Presidential Electors. — Judge Underwood's Address. — Mr. 
Clay's Reply. — A Touching Scene. — Author's Visit to Ashland. — Mr. Clay's 
Character. — The Raleigh Letter. — Annexation of Texas. — Mr. Clay's Predic- 
tions about Annexation. — Mr. Tyler's and Mr. Polk's hand in the Annexation 
of Texas. — ^Verification of Mr. Clay's Predictions 13 



CHAPTER II. 

Occupationofthe Winter of 1844-45. — GeneralJackson and his Party. — Not a 
Party of Principle. — The Whig Party. — Payment of Mr. Clay's Debts by hia 
Friends. — Silver Vase Presented by the Gold and Silver Artisans of New 
York. — ^Statue of Mr. Cky ordered by Ladles of Richmond. — Silver Vase by 
Ladies of Tennessee. — Mr. Clay's Speech on receivmg it. — Mr. Clay at New- 
Orleans and St. Louis. — His speech at New Orleans for the famishing Irish. — 
Letter of thanks from two Irishmen. — Death of Colonel Henry Clay, and Gen- 
eral Taylor's Letter to Mr. Clay announcing the sad event. — Mr. Clay's Bap- 
tism and first Communion. — Letter from Rev. Mr. Berkley, Mr. Clay's Pastor, 
on his Christian Character. — Anecdote to same point. — Mr. Clay's visit to Capo 
May, and Interview with a Committee from New York, and Others. — Speeches. 
— Return to Ashland. 37 



CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Clay's feehngs on the Mexican War. — ^Ilis Speech at Lexington, and Resolu- 
tions on the War. — A Defect of the Federal Constitution. — Popular Action in 
response to Mr. Clay's Speech. — Mr. Clay at Washington. — His Speech be- 
fore the Colonization Society. — Mr, Clay in the Supreme Court. — Death 
of Mr. Adams. — Mr. Ckiy's Reception at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York 58 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

PAGB 

The Fall of the Whig Party. History of the Apostasy of the Whig Party 
from "Whig Principles. — The Injustice to Mr. Clay in the Nomination of 
General Harrison and of General Taylor. — Mr. Clay a sacrificial victim. — 
The Overthrow of the Whig Party. — ilr. Clay's spotless Reputation and 
Fame 88 

CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Clay again in the Senate of the United States. — What the Senate may do 
while waiting for the Organization of the House. — Are you Married or Single ? 
— Mr. Clay's Plea to admit Father Mathew on the floor. — ^A tie Vote for Chap- 
lain. — Pleasantry and Sarcasm of Mr. Clay. — ^Ir. Clay on Mr. Cass's Eesolu- 
tion to suspend Diplomatic Intercourse with Austria. — Mr. Clay on the Pur- 
chase of the Manuscript Copy of Washington's Farewell Address. — On the 
Purchase of Mount Vernon 100 



CHAPTER VI. 

The CoMPRoiriSE op 1850. The critical Condition of the Country. — Mr. Clay's 
Resolutions of Compromise, and his Opening Remarks upon them. — Tlie 
Boundary of Texas on the West and North-West, as Claimed by Herself. — 
The Consequences of the folse Pretext of Congress for the Mexican War. — 
Origin of the Wilmot Proviso. — General Taylor opposed to the Claims of 
Texas, and Danger of a Civil War. — Mr. Rusk and other Senators oppose AEr. 
Clay's Resolutions 112 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Compromise of 1850. Review of Mr. Clay's great Speech on his Compro- 
mise Resolutions. — Mr. Clay's Project for the gradual Abolition of Slavery in 
the State of Kentucky. — Extract from Mr. Clay's Will 129 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Compromise op 1850. The Plan of Mr. Clay.— What is a Compromise?— 
Ultraists opposed to Mr. Clay. — Abuse by Abolitionists. — Slavery abolished in 
Mexico. — Mr. Pell's Resolutions. — Mr. Foote's Motion for a Committee of Thir- 
teen. — An extraordinary Scene in the Senate. — Report of the Committee of 
Thirteen. — Its Reception. — Opposition of the President. — Mr. Clay's Remarks 
on this Opposition.— Mr. Bell defends the President.— Death of the President. 
— Mr. Clay's Disinterestedness. — Mr. Webster on the Wilmot Proviso. — Mr. 
Clay's Opinion on carrying Slavery into the Territories. — Consequences of the 
Defeat or Success of the Bill.— Treason in South Carolina.— Defeat of the Bill 
a Victory 155 



CONTENTS, aa 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

The Compromise of 1850. Mr. Clay the Chieftain.— The Defeat a Victory. — 
Mr. Clay's Resolutions all carried out. — Mr. Clay's ijosition in the Compro- 
mise toward the North and South. — The lex loci of the New Territories. — The 
Virginia Resolutions of '98. — The Nature of Compromise Legislation. — The ob- 
noxious features of the Fugitive Slave Law. — The Compromises are Covenants. 182 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Clay's Patriotism. — Conspiracy to break down Mr. Clay. — Tho Secret of 
his Success. — Mr. Clay would try the Strength of tho Government against 
Nullification. — Federal Authority paramount. — Who Defeated the Bill. — Mr. 
Clay goes to Newport. — Is Benefited. — Returns to "Washington. — Mr. Clay 
exhausted. — Tlis Desire of Home. — Mr. Clay's Predictions in his Raleigh Letter 
Fulfilled. — Why he went to the Senate this last time 195 



CHAPTER XI. 

Continued agitation. — Declaration and Pledge, headed by Mr. Clay, against the 
Agitators. — Effect thereof — Mr. Clay's Proposal to Amend the Tariff of 1846. 
— Mr. Clay a practical and national man. — " I know no North, no South, no 
East, no West."— Mr. Clay's efforts for the River and Harbor bill defeated 
for want of the Previous Question. — His last battle 204 



CHAPTER XII. 

Close of Thirty-first Congress. — Mr. Clay rejects " Constructive Mileage." — His 
Opposition to it. — Mr. Clay's Lungs Injured. — Cough. — Returns to Ashland 
by way of Cuba. — Correspondence with Judge Beatty. — Health poor. — Mr. 
Clay apprehends the Secession Question in Congress. — The Gold Medal to 
Mr. Clay. — Increasing Illness. — His Reception of Kossuth. . . . 214 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr. Clay's Decline. — Extracts from his own Letters and from those of liis Son on 
the subject. — His Death. — ^Eulogies of Senators 225 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Resume' of tho Life and Character of Henry Clay 263 



XU CONTENTS. 

APPENDIX. 

Note A. 

PAGB 

Mr. Clay's Great Speech on his Compromise Resolutions 302 

Note B. 

Mr. Clay's Letter to Richard Pindell on Gradual Emancipation in the State of 
Kentucky 346 

Note C. 
Mr. Clay's AUusion in Debate to his Letter on Emancipation 353 

Note D. 

Fifty-eight Extracts from Mr. Clay's Speeches in the great Debate on the Com- 
promise, beginning January 29 and ending August 1, 1850 — with a variety of 

incidents. 354 — 396 

Mr. Benton on the Fugitive Slave Law 396 

A Letter from Mr. Clay to his Fellow-Citizens in New York, October 3, 1851, on 
the state of the countrj'. 402 

Note E. 

Eulogies in the House of Representatives on Mr. Clay, pronounced the day after 
his death il3 

Note F. 

The Obsequies of Mr. Clay — Funeral Cortege from "Washington to Lexington. — 
Honors to the illustrious deceased on the way, and the universal manifesta- 
tions of sorrow. — The Funeral Solemnities at Lexington 433 

Note G. 
A Letter from Mr. Clay on Dueling. .451 

Note II. 

Extracts from Mr. Clay's Speech in the Senate on the Death of Mr. Calhoun. . 453 



CORRESPONDENCE, 

1843 to 1851. 

Edited by Thomas B. Stevenson, I'Tsq. — Disclosing a new Chapter of History, 
with twenty-nine Letters from Mr. Clay, never before published. . . . 455 

Index 501 



TUB 



LAST SEVEN YEARS 



LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 



CHAPTER I, 



A KETROSPECT 



Resumption of this worii after ten years. — Tntcrview between Mr. Cl.iy and Presi- 
dential Electors. — .ludge Underwood's Address. — Mr. Clay's Reply. — A Touch- 
ing Scene. — Author's Visit to Ashland. — Mr. Clay's Character. — ^The Raleigh 
Letter. — Annexation of Texas. — Mr. Claj'^'s Predictions about Annexation. — Mr. 
Tyler's and Mr. Polk's hand in the Annexation of Texas. — Verification of Mr. 
Clay's Predictions. 

Ten years have rolled away since the author wrote the first 
two volumes of this work. At that time the suhject of these 
pa^es had retired to the shades of Ashland, somewhat wearied 
with the cares of puhlic life, but erect as ever in the manly 
vigor of his character, with a pulse still beating warmly in his 
heart for the country he had so long served, and which had 
so recently refused him the chair of its Chief Magistrate by 
electing his opponent. The author saw him much, and had 
frequent and intimate intercourse with him, in the winter of 
1844-45, when the contest which gave him the relief of retire- 
ment was over, and when the regrets of his friends, scattered 
over the country and over the world, were pouring in upon him, 
to express their disappointment at the result of the presidential 
election of 1844, and to renew their unabated, undying devotion 
to a statesman and leader so much beloved and so long confided 
in. The sympathy for defeat was, in this case, a prouder legacy 
than a coronal of victory. Millions of hearts still did homage 
to the patriot-sage, and he was more exalted as the object of 
such affection than he ever could have been as the chief execu- 



14 THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE 

tive of the nation. It was not the compliment of empty adula- 
tion for benefits in his gift, but a sincere tribute of gratitude for 
benefits which his pubhc services had conferred on the country ; 
and beyond this, it was personal affection for the man. For ]\Tr. 
Clay had the art, or rather without art, he was endowed with a 
nature, to make personal friends even of those he never saw. 
He was beloved more extensively than almost any man that ever 
lived. He had a heart, always frank, always open, always quick 
to all the sympathies of the social state, which never failed to 
touch the hearts of others, and which sent out its vigorous and 
warm pulsations wherever his words and thoughts were reported. 
He had the rare faculty of telling the thoughts of others, and 
revealing the secrets of their own bosoms ; and that is the man 
that the \vorld admires and loves ; and he was honest withal, 
sincere. Truth was his idol, and fairness his religion, till he 
was baptized in the grace of God ; and even then he did not 
have to change his religion so far as this feeling is concerned, 
or show less respect for truthfulness. These qualities of the 
man only had a higher motive and a purer aim. Before, he 
loved truth because he had a natural aversion to its opposite, and 
because he saw it was right in itself, and useful in society ; and 
he loved it all the more, when he came to recognize its Divine 
sanction. Mr. Clay was never a skeptic on the subject of relig- 
ion, and in embracing it, he only received into his heart that 
which he was prepared to entertain by the unitorm convictions 
of his life. 

As the second volume of this work only brought do\vii the 
life of Mr. Clay to the close of the presidential campaign of 
1844, we find a very befitting link with the future from that 
period, in the touching interview between Mr. Clay and the 
Presidential Electors of Kentucky, which occurred early in 
December of that year, at Ashland. The members of the 
Electoral College of Kentucky, having discharged their duty at 
Frankfort, in casting their vole for Mr. Clay as President, re- 
paired, in company of the Governor of the State, to Lexington, 
to express to Mr. Clay their abiding all'ection and confidence. 
It was an unceremonious call, and Mr. Clay had only a few hours' 
previous notice. The author of these i)ages had arrived in 
Lexington, to spend the winter there, in connection with Mr. 
Clay, to collect materials for the ])receding volumes. He had 



OF KENTUCKY AT ASHLAND. 15 

had no notice of this appointment till he ohserved an artillery 
company on parade, in the morning, after hreakfast, in front of 
his hotel. Of course, hearing the occasion, he could but fall in 
with the procession, and proceed to Ashland, a mile distant, to 
witness this interesting interview. The artillery marched up the 
long avenue, formed by an admirable turnpike road, with music 
at their head, and turning into the gate at Ashland, formed in 
front of Mr. Clay's mansion, where the members of the Electoral 
College and citizens of Lexington, with a few strangers, also 
assembled. It was a purely extemporaneous occasion, and one 
of singular, even exciting interest. It was an occasion, too, of 
profound solemnity. It was not to celebrate a victory, hut to 
honor a defeat. It was to say to the man — the fame of whose 
long puhlic life had sounded out through all lands, and who had 
so recently been rejected by the nation which he had so long 
served with a rare fidelity — Sir, we love you ; still we love 
YOU ; WE revere you. It was a small band of patriots assembled 
there, to honor the great American patriot. Tliere had been 
no call made on the people, else the wide-spread lawns of Ash- 
land could not have contained them. The cars had arrived that 
morning from Frankfort, with the Electors, Avho stepped from 
the cars into carriages, to be driven to Ashland. The move- 
ment from Lexington was instantaneous and voluntary — unmar- 
shaled. Even the small military parade of a company of 
artillery was an improm})iu assemblage. But the heart that was 
in it was to be measured inversely as the pageant. Of the latter 
there was little ; while the former could be told only by the 
inspirations of a poet. 

This singular assemblage stood mute in front of the mansion 
so long known as Ashland, waiting for something — for wbat ' 
Their instincts resolved the question, though no bulletin had 
announced the purpose. It was rumored that the Electors 
had come from Frankfort to see Mr. Clay, and it was known 
they could not part without some words. The author made one 
of this assemblage, as he saw the tall and dignified form of Mr. 
Clay emerge from the hall, and take his station on the step of 
his house, uncovered, and bowing, as all who have seen him 
bow know how he was wont to do it, to command the most 
fixed attention of all before him. Every head was uncovered 
the. moment he .appeared before them. But, there was no 
acclaim — not a word — not a breath. The scene and occasion 



16 SPEECH OF JUDGE TJNDEBWOOD. 

were so perfectly novel, that each one was embarrassed to know 
how to receive the venerable patriot, and all was hushed to the 
profoundest stillness. The thoughts and feelings of all were 
more funereal than joyous ; for the occasion grew out of a great 
disappointment — of a national sorrow. 

Judge Underwood, as the organ of the Electoral College, 
"stepped forward, bowing, and addressed Mr. Clay, as follows : 

"Mr. Clay: I have been selected by the members of our 
Electoral College to say to you, for each one of us, that we have 
come to offer you the homage of our personal regard and pro- 
found respect. In this work of the heart, many of your neigh- 
bors have likewise come to unite with us. On yesterday, at 
Frankfort, we performed our official duty in obedience to the 
will of the people of Kentucky, by voting unanimously for your- 
self and Theodore Frelinghuysen, to fill the offices of President 
and Vice-President of the United States. 

" The machinations of your enemies, their frauds upon the 
elective franchise, and their duplicity with the people, in pro- 
mulgating opposite principles in different sections, have defeated 
your election. 

" We have no hope of preferment at your hands, which can 
tempt us to flatter, nor can the ban of proscription intimidate 
us in speaking the truth. Under existing circumstances it grati- 
fies us to take you by the hand, and to unite, as we do most 
cordially, in expressing the sentiments of our hearts and of 
those we represent, in regard to yom- personal character and 
political principles. 

" Your past services are so interwoven with the history of 
our country for the last forty years, that malice and envy can 
not prevent succeeding generations from dwelling on your name 
with admiration and gratitude. Your example will illuminate 
the path of future statesmen, when those who hate and revile 
you are forgotten, or are. only remembered, like the incendiary 
who burned the temple, for the evil they have done. 

" To you the election has terminated without personal loss ; 
but to the nation, in our judgment, the injury is incalculable. 
God grant that the confederacy may not hereafter mourn over 
the result in dismembered fragments ! 

" While your enemies have not attempted to detract from 
your intellectual character, they have, with untiring malice, 
attacked your moral reputation, and endeavored to destroy it. 
The verbal slanders and printed libels employed as means to 
accomplish political objects, have stained the character of our 
country and its institutions more than they have injured yours. 

" In your high personal character, in your political principles, 



REPLY OF MR. CLAY. 17 

and unrivaled zeal and ability to carry them out, may he found 
the strong motives for our anxious efforts to secure your elec- 
tion. The protection of American labor, a national currency 
connected with a fiscal agent for the government, the distribu- 
tion among the States of the proceeds of the public lands, fur- 
ther constitutional restrictions upon executive power and p;itron- 
age, and a hmitation upon the eligilulity of the president for a 
second term, were measures which, under your administration, 
we hoped to mature and bring into practical operation. By 
your defeat they have been endangered, if not forever lost. 

"But we will not speculnte on coming events. If things 
work well, we shall find consolation in the general prosperity. 
If apprehended evils come, we are not responsible ; and, retain- 
ing our principles, we shall enjoy the happy reflection of having 
done our duty. 

"In the shades of Asliland may you long continue to enjoy 
peace, quiet, and the possession of those great faculties which 
have rendered you the admiration of your friends and the bene- 
factor of your country. And when at last death shall demand 
its victim, while Kentucky will contain your ashes, rest assured 
that old and faithful friends — those who, knowing you longest, 
loved you best — will cherish your memory and defend your 
reputation." 

The author watched the countenance of Mr. Clay during the 
progress of this address, but he knows not how to describe it. 
There was evidently some nervous excitement and occasional 
writhings of the muscles of his face. How natural was that in 
presence of such an assemblage, on such an occasion ! He 
knew they were all his friends, all disappointed, all sorrowful ; 
and he sympathized with their soitow. We do not think it was 
for himself that he was so profoundly moved, but for those before 
him — for his country. He could but know that millions of 
hearts had been, and still were throbbing with like sentiments of 
grief; and, could a man of so much heart as he w^s ever known 
to have, fail to be moved at such a spectacle there presented, 
when this could only remind him of the vastly ramified pulse of 
the nation beating in the same manner ? He was evidently 
greatly moved; and it was with extreme difficulty that he, who 
could brave a world in arms against him, could, in such pres- 
ence, and with such thoughts, reply to Judge Underwood, occa- 
sionally choked in his utterance, as follows : 

" I am greatly obliged, gentlemen, by the icindness toward me, 
which has prompted this visit from the Governor, the Presidential 



18 REPLY OF MR. CLAY 

Electors of Kentucky, and some of my fellow-citizens in private 
life. And I thank you sir (Mr. Underwood), their organ on this 
occasion, for the feeling and eloquent address which yon have 
just done me the honor to deliver. I am under the greatest 
obligations to the people of Kentucky. During more than forty 
years of my life they have demonstrated their confidence and 
affection toward me in every variety of form. This last and 
crowning evidence of their long and faithful attachment, exhib- 
ited in the vote which, in their behalf, you gave yesterday at 
the seat of the State Government, as the Electoral College of 
Kentucky, fills me with ovei-flowing gratitude. But I should 
fail to express the feelings of my heart, if I did not also ofler my 
profound and grateful acknowledgments to the other States 
which have united with Kentucky in the endeavor to elect me 
to the chief magistracy of the Union, and to the million and 
a quarter of freemen, embracing so much virtue, intelligence, 
and patriotism, who, wherever residing, have directed strenuous 
and enthusiastic exertions to the same object. 

" Their effort has been unavailing, and the issue of the elec- 
tion has not corresponded Mdth their anxious hopes and confident 
expectations. You have, sir, assigned some of the causes which 
you suppose have occasioned the result. I will not trust mj^elf 
to speak of them. ]My duty is that of perfect submission to an 
event which is now irrevocable. 

" I will not affect indifference to the personal concern I had 
in the- political contest just terminated : but, unless I am greatly 
self-deceived, the principal attraction to me of the ofRce of Presi- 
dent of the United States arose out of the cherished hope that I 
might be an humble instrument in the hands of Providence to 
accomplish public good. I desired to see the former purity of 
the general government restored, and to see dangers and evils 
which I sincerely believed encompassed it, averted and remedied. 
I was anxious that the policy of the country, especially in the 
great department of domestic labor and industry, should be fixed 
and stable, and that all might know how to regulate and accom- 
modate their conduct. And, fully convinced of the wisdom of 
die public measures, which you iiave enumerated, I hoped to 
live to witness, and to contribute to, their adoption and establish- 
ment. 

" So far as respects any official agency of mine, it has been 
otherwise decreed, and I bow respectfully to the decree. The 
future course of the government is altogedier unknown, and 
wrapped in painful uncertainty. 1 sliall not do the new adminis- 
tration the injustice of condemning it in advance. On the con- 
trary, I earnestly desire that, enlightened by its own reflections, 
and by a deliberate review of all the great interests of the coun- 
try, and prompted by public opinion, the benefit may yet be 



TO JUDGE UNDERWOOD. 19 

secured of the practical execution of those principles and meas- 
ures for which we have honestly contended ; that ]ieace and 
honor may he preserved ; and that this young hut great nation 
may lie rendered harmonious, prosperous, and powerful. 

"We are not without consolations under the event which- has 
happened. The Whig party has fully and fairly exhihited to 
the country the principles and measures which it helieved hest 
adapted to secure our liberties and promote the common welfare. 
It has made, in their support, constant and urgent appeals to the 
reason and judgment of the people. For myself, I have the 
satisfaction to know that I have escaped a great and fearful 
responsibility ; and that, during the whole canvass, I have done 
nothing inconsistent with the dictates of the purest honor. No 
mortal man is authorized to say that I held out to him the prom- 
ise of any office or appointment whatever. 

"What now is the duty of the Whig party? I venture to 
express an opinion \vitli the greatest diflldence. The future is 
enveloped in a vail impenetrable by human eyes. I can not 
contemplate it without feelings of great discouragement. But I 
know of only one safe rule in all the vicissitudes of human 
life, public and private, and that is, conscientiously to satisfy 
ourselves of what is right, and firmly and undeviatingly to pur- 
sue it, under all trials and circumstances, confiding in the Great 
Ruler of the universe for ultimate success. The Whigs are 
deliberately convinced of the truth and wisdom of the prin- 
ciples and measures which they have espoused. It seems, there- 
fore, to me, that they should persevere in contending for them ; 
and that, adhering to their separate and distinct organization, 
they should treat all who have got the good of their country in 
view with respect and sympathy, and invite their co-operation 
in securing the patriotic objects which it has been their aim and 
purpose to accomplish. 

" I heartily thank you, sir, for your friendly wishes for my 
happiness, in the retirement which henceforward best becomes 
me. Here I hope to enjoy peace and tranquillity, seeking faith- 
fully to perform, in the walks of private life, whatever duties 
may yet appertain to me. And I shall never cease, while life 
remains, to look, with lively interest and deep solicitude, upon 
the movement and operations of our free system of government, 
and to hope that, under the smiles of an all-wise Providence, our 
Republic may be ever just, honorable, prosperous and great." 



But if Mr. Clay was moved, how much more the assemblage 
of friends before him, when they looked on his form and face, 
thought of his character and history, remembered his public 
services, his long-tried fidelity to his friends and to the natijon, 



20 REMARKS ON 

his unrivaled and uncompromising advocacy of truth and right, 
his parliamentaiy eloquence and achievements, his executive 
talents, his social qualities, his deferential manner toward all 
worthy of his respect, his courtesy and unaffected kindness, 
and saw hefore them the great rejected, and heard him 
say, in subdued tones and with difficult utterance, in such cir- 
cumstances, and on such an occasion, " 1 thank you, gentle- 
men'' — how could they fail to be moved ? There was not a 
man, nor a youth, nor a boy there, that did not weep as the 
heart pours out its grief on the most painful events of life. 
Men leaning on a cannon, or with sword in belt, with hearts 
strong to fight the battles of their country, if need be, stood 
there with streaming eyes, because of the wrongs done to their 
chieftain. All knew that he was defeated by fraud, as shown 
in chapter xviii. vol. ii. They parted, and went to their homes 
in sorrow. We would rather have failed to witness the pageant 
of a conquering hero returning from his battles, amid the deafen- 
ing acclamations of a wdiole people, the ringing of bells, and 
the roar of artillery, than to have been absent from the scene at 
Ashland above described. 

The author of these pages spent the winter of 1844-45 at 
Lexington, in daily communication with Mr. Clay, while in 
quest of materials for the first two volumes of this work, and 
had frequent opportunities to witness the proofs of affection 
rendered to Mr. Clay, not unlike those above described, by the 
people of Lexington, by pilgrims to Ashland from various parts 
of the country, some very remote, and by letters, with which 
every day's mail was burdened, some brief extracts from w^hich 
are given in chapter xix. vol. ii., and numerous letters in full, 
of a like character, will be found in chapter xii. vol. iv., 
which is devoted to Mr. Clay's Private Correspondence. It 
was in view of these marks of affection that INIr. Clay says, in a 
letter of the 25th of April, 1845 : 

" I have been, in spite of unexpected discomfitures, the object 
of honors and of compUments usually rendered only to tliose 
wdio are successful and victorious in the great enterprises of man- 
kind. To say nothing of other demonstrations, the addresses 
and communications which I have received since the election, 
from every quarter, from collective bodies and individuals, and 
' from both sexes, conveying sentiments and feelings of the 
warmest regard and strongest friendship, and deploring the issue 



MR. clay's character. 21 

of the election, would fill a volume. I have been quite as much, 
if not more, atlected by them than I \vas by any disappointment 
of personal interest of my own in the event of the contest. ■' 

Ordinarily, as all the world knows, the political defeat of a 
ptd)lic man, is the end of his story, and the end of public regard. 
He must have some strong marks of character to retain a ]jlace 
ni history. But when the instincts of a wide public, of man- 
kind, render involuntary homage to a spirit that has been among 
them, to a genius that has made an impression upon them, the 
man that has excited such observation, can not be of an ordi- 
nary character. If Washington was adored, Mr. Clay was 
beloved. Washington gained supremacy over the mind of man 
as a minister from heaven, sent on a special embassy. He never 
stooped to be an equal of those around him. He could not 
stoop. His great mission was in an elevated sphere, and he 
would have failed if he had descended to a common level. His 
position was ever high, and forever being lifted up. His fellow- 
men could not but regard him as a sui^erior being, and there- 
fore he was revered. Washington was sent to achieve the free- 
dom of his country. It was Mr. Clay's mission to vindicate it, 

Mr. Clay was all human. His frailties — for none will deny 
that he had them — were human. But his better instincts were 
ever in the ascendant. He was a man of genius, and genius 
always oversteps the ordinary laws of humanity. His human 
failings always kept him in sympathy with those about 
him, at the same time that his genius advised him of his 
own superiority — a superiority the very attributes of which 
always suppressed and held in check oflensive displays of itsflf. 
It was a part of his genius to be deferential, respectful, court- 
eous — and such courtesy as man is rarely endowed with — a 
courtesy that wins its way to every heart, and captivates the 
affections of those on whom it is bestowed. It was eminently the 
humanity of INIr. Clay which allured all humanity to himself. 
All saw and felt that he was a man of like passions and feelings 
with themselves. There was no distance between Mr. Clay 
and his friends, but his heart always addressed itself to their 
hearts, as the face of man reflects itself from the mirror before 
which he stands. And Mr. Clay was the same in public as in 
private. That same deference and courtesy which gained the 
heart of a friend, and having gained it, never lost it, carried the 



22 TRIBUTE TO MR. CLAY. 

same insinuating, captivating influence, in a wide sweep over 
the public mind. If all could not see and hear, each for him- 
self, all could read ; and Mr. Clay's words reported, produced 
the same effect, though less in degree, as his words addressed to 
the ear. They came from a deep conviction, and carried con- 
viction with them. And besides all this, there is always a con- 
tagion of influence in such a man's character which goes before 
his personal presence, and spreads out like the ripples of the 
glassy surface of a lake, in which a stone has been cast, till 
they gently touch the entire surrounding border. The nature 
of man is like the world of nature around him, every part of 
which has its relations to other parts. It is the same in the 
advent of a superior genius. His relations are vast, extending 
over the entire surface of society, and his influence can not be 
limited. 

The following eloquent tribute to Mr. Clay, by the Hon. 
Thomas L. Clingman, of North Carolina, in a speech in the 
House of Representatives, March 7, lS-14, seven years before 
Mr. Clay's death, is pertinent here, as one of the many brief 
descriptions of his character to be found on record : 

" To the fertile genius, vast sagacity, and large patriotism of 
Themistocles, Henry Clay has added the justice of his rival, 
Aristides, the frankness of Cato, the daring of Caesar, the elo- 
quence of Tully. He never failed a friend or fled a foe. When 
the storm was wildest his voice has been iieard loudest. When 
the battle was hottest he has ever stood in the front of the 
column. His path has led him through many a difficulty and 
danger. At times he might have complained of ingraiitnde and 
obloquy. Once it seemed as if he was destined to go down to 
his grave with a cloud on his fame. 

" But, for all this, he never swerved or hesitated for a moment 
in his onward course. Ever bearing a high heart under advers- 
ity, he has stood erect in the darkest liours of the Repultlic, and 
kei)t alive the spirit of liberty and of resistance to tyranny and 
oppression. Many of those who stood with him at the outset of 
his career, fainted by the wayside, or wandered away from their 
principles. But he has been 

' Faithful found 
Among the faithless * * 

* * » * * unmoved, 
Unshaken, unsednced, unterriSed. 
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal. 
Nor number nor example with him wrought, 
To swerve from truth, or change liis constant mind.' " 



TRIBUTE TO MR. CLAY. 23 

Tlic following graphic sketch of '' the personal endowments" 
of Mr. Clay, from the " Louisville Jonrnal," pending the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1844, is worthy of a place here. It is no 
small praise to the press of our country, that in its common 
emissions it should present such articles. But, in this case, it 
was doubtless the theme that inspired the writer : 

" Mr. Clay is an honest man ; he is a fair-dealing man ; he is 
a true man ; he is a man who believes in his own principles, 
who follows his own convictions, who avows his sentiments, 
and acts on them ; who never deserted a friend ; who was 
never deterred from his purpose ; who was never seduced from 
what he undertook to do. He is a man of faith, in the largest 
sense of the word. No man has ever been more severely tried 
in public life, in this country, than Mr. Clay ; and no man ever 
exhibited a more sublime manhood in the character of trust- 
worthiness. * * * Let him be right, or let him be wrong, 
he will do what he says he will do. ^ * * * He has great 
force of will, and high moral courage. * * * That lofty 
self reliance, that noble strength of character, that intrepid pur- 
suit of what one resolves to accomplish, that power over circum- 
stances and over men, that mental and moral capacity which 
enables a man to bear away the obstacles which he encounters, 
that instinct of triumph in all that one resolves to effect — these 
are traits which Mr. Clay possesses in a very high degree. * * 
Mr. Clay is generous and wise, as well as firm and full of con- 
viction. Such a man seems as if he had two souls : one all 
force and poAver, and the other all gentleness and trust. * * * 
The most remarkable mental endowment of Mr. Clay is Ids 
common sense. If we except Benjamin Franklin, he is the most 
sagacious man this country has ever produced. His knowledge 
of affairs seems rather intuitive than the result of experience. 

* * * His fame as an orator is world-wide. But what is the 
oratory of those great discourses? No flowers of rhetoric adorn 
them. No vast fund of acquired erudition. jVIi". Clay hardly 
ever quotes from books. No elaborate argnmentations. "W liat 
then ? The grandeur of an intellect that seems to perceive truth 
intuitively, united to a patlios fervent as that of Demosthenes. 

* * * ' If we wanted a grammarian, in the ancient sense of 
the word, we v/ould take Mr Calhoun ; if we wanted the clear- 
est demonstration of a given proposition, we would have none 
but Webster; if we desired the aid of all that is rich, full, and 
overwhelming in true eloquence, Preston i^ the man ; it we 
needed the clearest, purest, and most beautiful advocacy of 
all right and noble things, Crittenden is the living model ; but, 
if we desire to know the truth, to be taught the right, to be 
kept from delusion, to be set in the way in which we ought to 



24 TRIBUTE TO MR. CLAY. 

walk for our country's good, and to he supported in the nohle 
race, then Henry Clay is the true guide ; and it is nearly the 
same whether the lesson he given from the halls of Congress 
or from the shades of Ashland. Call it as you will, we call it 
common sense, under the guidance of an intellect hy the side 
of which few that have existed coidd stand as rivals. 

" :iMr. Clay has heen, on all occasions, for nearly half a cen- 
tury, wholly invincible, whenever he has been called to act on 
any theater where he could hold personal interviews with all the 
other actors. At the bar, in popular assemblies, in both houses 
of Congress, who was ever with him habitually that did not 
feel the power of his bewitching influence, or fall in open com- 
bat before his irresistible might ? Many of the ablest men of 
the age have striiggled, toe to toe, against him on every theater 
where he has ever acted. Which one of them all failed to be over- 
mastered ? Many of the noblest spirits this country has pro- 
duced have lived on terms of constant friendly intercourse with 
him ; and which one of them ever exerted over Mr. Clay a 
thousandth part of the influence that Mr. Clay did over him? 
Who ever suspected him of being led by other men ? No, this 
is a man to lead, not to be himself guided by other minds." 

It might seem partial to borrow two such brief descriptions 
of Mr. Clay's character as the above, given while he was living, 
when the press of the country for the last forty years teems 
with similar pictures, by eminent men, and in eloquent i)hrase, 
both of prose and poetry, which, if collected, would swell out 
numerous volumes. But our object is history, not eulogy. In 
resuming a task ten years laid by, when the subject of our story 
is three years in his grave, with a memory which only grows 
more hallowed as it loses its freshness, we might, perhaps, be 
pardoned, for a brief expression of our admiration of his charac- 
ter. Doubtless we shall oft betray it, in the progress of this 
volume, as new developments of the same tried character are 
unfolded, when the mind, the patriotism, the wisdom of the 
man fafl not, though his body fail ; where the virtues of the 
soul rise and shine with greater luster, in proportion as the bodily 
faculties droop, and give token of approaching dissolution. 

It will be somewhat indispensable, as we think, to a right un- 
derstanding of some of the future parts of this volume, that the 
reader should hare before him, as a subject of reference, what 
has always been called Mr. Clay's Raleigh Letter. We, there- 
fore, give the main body of it, dropping only one, though a con- 
siderable paragraph. It is as follows : 



THE EALEIGH LETTER. 25 

" TO THE EDITORS OF THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER. 

'•TJ.\r,Kir;ir. April 17. 1 S44. 

•' Gf.ntlf.mex — Siiliseqneiit to my departure from Aslilaiid, in 
Dece?nher last, T received various commnnications from popular 
assemlib^es and private individuals, requesting an expression of 
my opinion npon the question of the annexation of Texas to the 
Unilod States. I have forehorne to reply to them, because it 
was not very convenient, durino; the progress of my journey, to 
do so, and for other reasons. I did not think it proper unneces- 
sarily to introduce at present a new element among the other ex- 
citing subjects which agitato and engross the public mind. The 
rejection of the overture of Texas, some years ago, to become 
annexed to the United States, had met with general acqui- 
escence. Nothing had since occurred materially to vary the ques- 
tion. I had seen no evidence of a desire being entertained, on 
the part of any considerable portion of the American people, that 
Texas should become an integral part of the United States. 
During my sojourn in New Orleans, I had, indeed, been greatly 
surprised, by information which I received from Texas, that, in 
the course of last fall, a voluntary overture had proceeded from 
the Executive of the United States, to the authorities of Texas, 
to conclude a treaty of annexation ; and that, in order to over- 
come the repugnance felt by any of them to a negotiation upon 
the subject, strong, and as I believed, erroneous representations 
had been made to them of a state of opinion in the Senate of 
the United States favorable to the ratification of such a treaty. 
According to these representations, it had been ascertained that 
a number of Senators, varying from thirty-five to forty-two, were 
ready to sanction such a treaty. I was aware, too, that holders 
of Texas bonds and Texas scrip, and speculators in them, were 
actively engaged in promoting the object of annexation. Still 
I did not believe that any Executive of the United States 
would venture upon so grave and momentous a proceeding not 
only without any general manifestation of public opinion in 
favor of it, but in direct opposition to strong and decided ex- 
pressions of public disapprobation. But it appears that I was 
mistaken. To the astonishment of the whole nation, we are 
now informed that a treaty of annexation has been actually 
concluded, and is to be submitted to the Senate for its consider- 
ation. 

'- The motives for my silence, therefore, no longer remain, and 
I feel it to be my duty to j)resent an exposition of my views and 
opinions upon the question, for what they may be worth, to the 
public consideration. I adopt this method as being more con- 
venient than several replies to the respective communications 
which I have received. 

" I regret that I have not the advantage of a view of the treaty 
itself, so as to enable me to adapt an expression of my opinion 



26 THE RALEIGH LETTER, 

to the actual conditions and stipulations which it contains. Not 
possessing that opportunity, I am constrained to treat the question 
according to M'hat I presume to he the terms of the treaty. If, 
without the loss of national character, without the hazard of 
foreign war, with the general concurrence of the nation, without 
any danger to the integrity of the Union, and without sfiving an 
unreasonahle price for Texas, the question of ainicxation were 
presented, it would appear in quite a different light from that in 
which, I apprehend, it is now to he regarded. 

" The United States acquired a title to Texas, extending, as I 
helieve, to the Rio del Norte, hy the treaty of Louisiana. They 
ceded and relinquished that title to Spain hy the treaty of 1819, 
by Avhich the Sabine was substituted for the Rio del Norte, as 
our western boundary. This treaty was negotiated under the 
administration of Mr. Monroe, and with the concurrence of his 
Cabinet, of which Messrs. Crawford, Calhoun, and Wirt, being a 
majority, all Southern gentlemen, composed a part. AVhen the 
treaty was laid before the House of Reyn-esentatives, being a 
member of that body, I expressed the opinion, which I then en- 
tertained, and still hold, that Texas was sacrificed to the acqui- 
sition of Florida. We wanted Florida ; bnt I thought it must, 
from its position, inevitably fall into our possession ; that the 
point of a few years, sooner or later, was of no sort of conse- 
quence ; and that, in giving five millions of dollars, and Texas, 
for it, we gave more than a just equivalent. But, if we made a 
sacrifice in the surrender of Texas, we ought to take care not to 
make too great a sacrifice in the attemjjt to reacquire it. My 
opinion of the inexpediency of the treaty of 1819, did not pre- 
vail. The country and Congress were satisfied Avith it, appro- 
priations were made to carry it into efl^ect, the line of the Sabine 
was recognized by us as our boiuidary, in negotiations both 
with Spain and Mexico, after Mexico became independent, and 
measures have been in actual progress to mark the line from the 
Sabine to the Red River, and thence to the Pacific Ocean. We 
had thus fairly alienated our title to Texas by solemn national 
com[)acts, to tiic fulfilhnent of which we stand bound by aood 
faith and national honor. It is, therefore, perfectly idle and 
ddiculoiis, if not dishonorable, to talk of resnming our title to 
Texas, as if we had never parted with it. We can no more do 
that than Sj)ain can resume Florida : France, Louisiana, or Great 
Britain the thirteen colonies now composing a part of the United 
Stales. 

" Dnring the administration of Mr. Adams, Mr. Poinsett, Min- 
ister of the United States to Mexico, was instructed by me, with 
the President's authority, to propose a rejtnrcliase of Texas; but 
he forebore even to make an overtnre for that purpose. Upon 
his return to the United States, he informed me, at New Orleans, 
that his reason for not making it was, that he knew the purchase 



THE RALEIGH LETTER. 27 

was wholly impracticahlc, and that he was porstiadetl, if he made 
the overture, it M'-ould have no other eflfcct than to as^ravatc 
irritntions, already existing, upon matters of difference between 
the two countries. 

" The events which have since transpired in Texns, arc well 
known. She revolted against the government of Mexico, flew 
to ;u-ms. nnd flnnlly fought and won the memorable battle of 
San Jacinto, annihiiatinij a Mexican army, and making a captive 
of the Mexican President. The signal success of that revolu- 
tion was greatly aided, if not wholly achieved, liy citizens of 
the United States, who had migrated to Texas. These suc- 
cesses, if they could not always be prevented by the govern- 
ment of the United States, were furnished in a manner, and to an 
extent, which brought upon ns some national reproach in the 
eyes of an impartial world. And, in my opinion, they impose 
on us the obligation of scrupulously avoiding the imputation of 
having instigated and aided the revolution, with the ultimate 
view of territorial aggrandizement. After the battle of San Ja- 
cinto, the United States recognized the independence of Texas, 
in conformity with the principle and practice which have always 
prevailed in their councils of recognizing the government de 
facto, without regarding the question de jure. That recog- 
nition did not affect or impair the rights of Mexico, or change 
the relations which existed between her and Texas. She, on 
the contrary, has preserved all her rights, and has continued to 
assert, and so far as I know, still assorts, her right to reduce 
Texas to obedience, as a part of the republic of Mexico. Ac- 
cording to late intelli2;ence, it is probable that she has agreed 
upon a temporary suspension of hostilities ; but, if that has 
been done, I presume it is with the purpose, upon the termina- 
tion of the armistice, of renewing the war, and enforcing her 
rights, as she considers them. 

" This narrative shows the present actual condition of Texas, 

so far as I have information about it. If it be correct, Mexico 

has not abandoned, but perseveres in the assertion of her rights 

by actual force of arms, which, if suspended, are intended to be 

renewed. Under these circinnstances, if the government of the 

United States were to acquire Texas, it would acquire along 

with it all the incumbrances which Texas is under, and among 

them the actual or suspended war between Mexico and Texas. 

Of that consequence there can not be a doubt. Annexation and 

war with Mexico are identical. Now, for one, 1 certainly 

am not willing to involve this country in a foreign war for the 

object of acquiring Texas. I know there are those who regard 

such a war with indillcrence, and as a trifling affair, on account 

of the weakness of INIexico, and her inaliility to inflict serious 

injury upon this country. But I do not look upon it thus lightly. 

I regard all wars as great calamities, to be avoided, if possible, 



28 THE RALEIGH LETTER, 

and honorahle peace as the wisest and trnest policy of this conn- 
try. What the United States most need, are nnion, peace, and 
patience. Nor do I think that the weakness of a power should 
form a motive, in any case, for inducing us to engage in or to 
depreciate the evils of war. Tlouor and good faith and justice 
are equally due from this country toward the weak as toward 
the strong. And, if one act of injustice were to he perpetrnted 
toward any power, it would he more compatible with the dienity 
of the nation, and, in my judgment, less dishonorahle, to inflict 
it upon a powerful than upon a weak foreign nation. Have we 
any security that countless numbers of foreign vessels, under the 
authority and flag of Mexico, would not prey upon our defense- 
less commerce in the Mexican Gulf, on the Pacific Ocean, and 
on every other sea and ocean ? What commerce, on the other 
hand, does Mexico ofler, as an indemnity for our losses, or the 
gallantry and enterprise of our countrymen ? This view of the 
subject supposes that the war would be confined to tlie United 
States and Mexico as the only belligerents. But, have we any 
certain guaranty that Mexico would obtain no allies among the 
great European powers ? Suppose any such powers, jealous of 
our increasing greatness, and disposed to check our growtii and 
cripple us, were to take part in behalf of Mexico, in the war, 
how would the difl'erent belligerents present themselves to Chris- 
tendom and the enlightened world ? We have been seriously 
charged with an inordinate spirit of territorial aggrandizement; 
and, without admitting the justice of the charge, it must be 
owned that we have made vast acquisitions of territory within 
the last forty years. Suppose Great Britain and France, or one 
of them, were to take part with Mexico, and by a manifesto, 
were to proclaim that their objects were to assist a weak and 
helpless ally to check the sjiirit of encroachment and ambition 
of an already overgrown Republic, seeking still further acquisi- 
tions of territory, to maintain the independence of Texas, dis- 
connected Willi the United States, and to prevent the further 
propagation of slavery from the United States, what would be 
the ell'ect of such allegations U})on the judgment of an imjuntial 
and enlightened workl ? 

" Assuming tliat the annexation of Texas is war with Mexico, 
is it competent to the treaty-making power to plunge this country 
into war, not only without the concurrence of, but without 
deigning to consult Congress, to which, by the Coiistituiion, 
belongs exclusively the power of declaring war. 

" 1 have hitlieito considered the question upon the supposition 
that the annexation of Texas is attempted without the assent of 
Mexico. If slie yields her ass>ent, ih t would materially aflect 
the foreign asjicct uf the question, if it did not remove all for- 
eign diriiculiies. On the assumption of that assent, the question 
would be confined to the domestic considerations which belong 



THE RALEIGH LETTER. 29 

to it, embracing the terms and conditions npon whicli annexntion 
is proposed. I do not think that Texas onslit to be received 
into the Union, as an integral part of it, in decided opposition to 
the wishes of a considerable and I'espectable portion of the Con- 
federacy. I think it far more wise and important to compose 
and harmonize the present Confederacy, than to introduce a new 
element of discord and distraction into it. In my linmble opinion, 
it should be the constant and earnest endeavor of American states- 
men to eradicate prejudices, to cultivate and foster concord, and 
to produce general contentment among all parts of our Confeder- 
acy. And true wisdom, it seems to me, points to the duty of 
rendering its present members happy, prosperous, and satisfied 
with each other, ratber than to attempt to introduce alien mem- 
bers, against the common consent, and with the certainty of 
deep dissatisfaction. Mr. Jefferson expressed the opinion, and 
others believ^ed, that it never was in the contemplation of the 
framers of the Constitution to add foreign territory to the Con- 
federacy, out of which new states were to be formed. The ac- 
quisition of Louisiana and Florida may be defended upon the 
peculiar ground of the relation in which they stood to the vStates 
of the Union. After they were admitted we might well pause 
a while, people our vast wastes, develop our resources, prepare 
the means of defending what we possess, and augment our 
strength, power, and greatness. If hereafter further territory 
should be wanted for an increased population, we need entertain 
no apprehensions but that it will be acquired by means, it is to 
be hoped, fair, honorable, and constitutional. 

" It is useless to disguise that there are those who espouse, 
and those who oppose the annexation of Texas, upon the ground 
of the influence which it would exert, in the balance of political 
power, between two great sections of the Union. I conceive 
that no motive for the acquisition of foreign territory would be 
more unfortunate, or pregnant with more fatal consequences, 
than that of obtaining it for the purpose of strengthening one 
part against another part of the common Confederacy. Such a 
principle, put into practical operation, would menace the exist- 
ence, if it did not certainly sow the seeds of the dissolution, of 
the Union. It would be to proclaim to the world an insatiable 
and unquenchable thirst for foreign conquest or acquisition of 
territory. For if to-day Texas be acquired to strengthen one 
part of the Confederacy, to-morrow Canada may be required to 
add strength to another. And, after that might have been ob- 
tained, still other and farther acquisitions would become neces- 
sary to equalize and adjust the balance of political power. Fi- 
nally, in the progress of this spirit of universal dominion, the 
part of the Confederacy which is now weakest would find itself 
still weaker from the impossibility of securing new theaters for 



30 THE RALEIGH LETTER. 

those peculiar institutions which it is charged with being de- 
sirous to extend, 

'■ But would Texas ultimately really add strength to that 
which is now considered the weakest part of the Confederacy ? 
If my information be correct, it would not. According to that, 
the territory of Texas is susceptible of division into five States, 
of convenient size and form. Of these, two only would be 
adapted to those peculiar institutions to which I have referred ; 
and the other three, lying west and north of San Antonio, being 
only adapted to farming and grazing purposes, from the nature 
of the soil, climate, and productions, would not admit of those 
institutions. In tlie end, therefore, there would be two slave 
and three free States added to the Union. If this view of the 
soil and geography of Texas be correct, it might serve to dimin- 
ish the zeal both of those who oi^pose and those who are urging 
annexation. 

" Should Texas be annexed to the Union, the United States 
will assume and become responsible for the debt of Texas, be its 
amount what it may. What it is, I do not know certainly ; but 
the least I have seen it stated at, is thirteen millions of dollars. 
And this responsibility will exist whether there be a stipulation 
in the treaty or not, expressly assuming the payment of the 
debt of Texas. For I suppose it to be undeniable that if one 
nation becomes incorporated in another, all the delfts, and obli- 
gations, and incumbrances, and wars of the incorporated nation, 
becomes the debts, and obligations, and incum1)rances, and 
wars of the common nation created by the incorporation. 

" If any European nation entertains any ambitious designs 
upon Texas, such as that of colonizing her, or in any way sub- 
jugating her, I should regard it as the imperative duty of the 
government of the United States to oppose to such designs the 
most firm and determined resistance, to the extent, if necessary, 
of appealing to arms, to prevent the accomplishment of any such 
designs. The Executive of the United States ought to be 
informed as to the aims and views of foreign powers with regard 
to Texas, and I presume tliat, if there be any of the exception- 
able character which 1 have indicated, the Executive will dis- 
close to the co-ordinate department of the Government, if not to 
the public, the evidence of them. From what I have seen and 
heard I believe that Great Britain has recently formally and sol- 
emnly disavowed any such aims or purposes — has declared that 
she IS desirous only of the independence of Texas, and that she 
has no intention to interfere in her domestic institutions. If she 
has made such disavowal and declaration, 1 presume they are in 
the possession of the Executive. * * * * 

"Altiiough I have felt compelled, from the nature of the in- 
quiries addressed to me, to extend this communication to a much 
greater length than I would have wished, I could not do justice 



KEMARKS, 31 

to the suhject, and fairly and fully expose my own opinions, in 
a shorter space. In conclusion, they may he stated in a few- 
words to he, that I consider the annexation of Texas, at this 
time, without the assent of Mexico, as a measure compromising 
the national character, involving us certainly in a war with 
Mexico, prohahly with other foreign powers, dangerous to the 
integrity of the Uuion, inexpedient in the present financial con- 
dition of the country, and not called for hy any general expres- 
sion of puhlic opinion. 

" I am, respectfully, your ohedient servant, 

"H. Clay." 

There are many points in this letter worthy of special notice, 
for their historical, prophetic, and statesman-like character. But 
the pervading characteristic running through every paragra))!!, 
and breathing in every line, is Mr. Clay's stern honesty and un- 
bending integrity, both as a man and as a statesman. It is clear 
enough, in the opening of the letter, that he was reluctant to 
give credit to the atrocious scheme of forcing Texas upon the 
Union, in the manner proposed ; and that he was even astounded, 
when he learned at New Orleans that the Executive of the 
United States [Mr. Tyler] had not only deigned to make an 
overture of annexation to Texas — from whence the overture 
should come, if made at all, under the circumstances — ^but that 
the President of the United States had actually gone so far, in 
connection with the other party, as to have concluded on the 
form and terms of a treaty of annexation, to be submitted to 
the Senate of the United States. An overture from Texas had 
previously been acted upon, and rejected. The nation acqui- 
esced in that decision, and had slumbered on in quiet repose, and 
in a state of perfect unconsciousness, that the question was to be 
sprung upon the American people by strategy, and that strategy 
originating in the breast of the national Executive. It could 
never, at this time, have been carried by open and fair means ; 
for that way had been tried ; it must therefore be done by secret 
counsels, and by a secret mission to Texas. The Senate of the 
United States was to be taken by surprise, and carried by a coup 
de main, before the public should have time to debate the question. 

Aware of the momentous character of such a transaction, 
nothing could be more shocking to Mr. Clay's honest feelings. 
Wliatever might be the consequences to himself, he resolved, if 
possible, to arrest this iniquitous proceeding, and he sent to the 
"National Intelliaencer" his Raleio;h Letter. 



32 REMARKS ON 

Some may have thought that this was unwise in Mr. Clay, 
and that the end proved it so. It was certainly honest ; and 
could any one, who claimed to understand Mr. Clay's character, 
expect that he would violate his convictions of right ? True, it 
is acknowledged, as Mr. Clay predicted, this measure involved 
us in a war with Mexico ; but it is said that war gave us another 
wide belt of territory across the continent, and it gave us Cali- 
fornia. The Mexican war, it is said, was popular, and the 
American people are proud of their new acquisitions. This is 
history. 

But we have not done with this question until the course of 
policy and of right, indicated by Mr. Clay, is considered. Texas 
was sure to fall into our lap, when the fruit should be ripe, and 
we could have it fairly and honorably ; and all that we acquired 
from Mexico by the war might have been bought, ere this 
time, for less than a moiety of the cost of the war, not to speak 
of the destruction of human life occasioned by the war. No 
one will question for a moment these two hypothetical conclu- 
sions. We had eained Louisiana, stretchina to the Pacific, and 
Florida, by treaty stipulations, and at a reasonable price. We 
had even bought Texas once, and parted with it, as shown in 
Mr. Clay's letter ; and the whole of North America was before 
us, for the same peaceful acquisition, as fast as we might have 
occasion for it. There was no call, no occasion, no possible just- 
ification of war, bloodshed, and violence, to extend our domain. 
It was only a question of time. It was our destiny to conquer, 
as far as we might desire, by peace and right ; and that was the 
policy and the object of Mr. Clay. 

But Mr. Tyler, the acting President of the United States, had 
betrayed the party that raised him to power, deserted their prin- 
ciples, and in the agony of his concern and strife to be elected 
President, thought it necessary to enact some grand coup d\tat, 
to foist himself into that place, and he devised the atrocious 
scheme that is depicted in the former part of Mr. Clay's letter. 
" To the astonishment of the whole nation,'^ says Mr. Clay, " we 
are now informed that a treaty of annexation has been actually 
concluded, and is to be submitted to the Senate for its consider- 
ation." 

In another part of the letter, Mr. Clay says : "It is useless to 
disguise that there are those who espouse, and those who oj)- 
pose, the annexation of Texas, on the ground of the influence 



THE RALEIGH LETTER. 33 

wliich it would exert in tlic balance of political power, between 
two great sections of the Union ;" that is, between the North 
and Sonth, between tlie free and the slave States. This move-r 
ment of Mr. Tyler, then acting President, was a bid for South- 
ern support in the nomination just about to be made for Presi- 
dent of the United States. The general belief in the slave States 
was, that the annexation of Texas would be so far an extension 
of the area of slavery — and it was certainly a vast area in pros- 
pect. To admit this element of strife, for a balance o£ political 
power, between the free and the slave States, Mr. Clay justly re- 
garded as fearfully portentous, because no one could calculate on 
its termination, but all might justly apprehend its increase and 
aggravation, once begun. Mr. Clay, therefore, desired to scotch 
the serpent in his first move. 

But the bid for the South had been made, and the price was 
regarded as a tempting one. It did not avail, however, for Mr. 
Tyler, to secure his nomination ; though he was in fact nomi- 
nated by a small band of his own officials, which made the affair 
ridiculous in the eyes of the nation. It is the doom of all trait- 
ors to be despised, and to fall under the universal contempt of 
mankind. So was it with John Tyler. As Governor Davis, of 
Massachusetts, afterward Senator of the United States, com- 
monly called "Honest John," for his exemplary probity, politi- 
cal as well as social, says, in a letter to ]\Ir. Clay, found in the 
fourth volume of this work : " Corruption and Tyler, and Tyler 
and corruption, will stick together, as long as Cataline and 
treason." 

But James K. Polk, of Tennessee, received the nomination as 
the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, and was declared 
elected, as we have before had occasion to notice. Mr. Clay 
was the opposing candidate of the Whig party, and was defeated 
in the manner which we have also noticed. 

Mr. Tyler, the acting President, although he failed in the 
nomination, which he sought so assiduously, and at the expense 
of his character as a public officer, had no motive for treading 
back in the steps he had taken for the annexation of Texas. 
Having justly exposed himself to the reprobation of the Whig 
party, who had raised him to power, he hated them in turn, and 
could not love Mr. Clay, who was their chief, and who had given 
him such a rebuke in his Raleigh Lettei'. In sheer revenge, 
therefore, on the Whig party, and on Mr. Clay, as well as to 

3 



34 REMARKS ON 

maintain his consistency, having gone so far in the matter of 
annexation, he still pursued that object, with all his energy as a 
^^an — not very great — and with all his influence as chief magis- 
trate of the nation. Mr. Clay, in his letter, had frightened Mr. 
Tyler from any further eflort to accomplish this object by the 
treaty-making power. Mr. Polk was declared President elect ; 
and for the same reasons which had actuated Mr. Tyler in orig- 
inating this movement, he also desired to accomplish the same 
end. Mc. Tyler, therefore, as acting President, and Mr. Polk as 
President elect, held mutual counsel, and acted in concert, for 
the annexation of Texas. Both were in a position to operate on 
the two Houses of Congress — Mr. Polk especially, as the Presi- 
dent elect, from whom favor might be obtained during his ad- 
ministration. It was resolved, therefore, to sail round the treat)'- 
making power, and annex Texas by a joint resolution of the two 
Houses, which was consummated the last night of Mr. Tyler's 
administration. Thus Texas, national dishonor, and war with 
Mexico, were annexed to the United States, at the moment when 
Mr. Tyler went out and Mr. Polk came in, by the mutual desire 
and efforts of these two men. The nation had no voice in it, 
was not consulted. So far as the nation had expressed itself, 
when the question was up on a former occasion, its voice was 
against the measure. But the Twenty-eighth Congress, the one at 
this time in session, was not elected with any such issue pending, 
and yet this was the most important and most momentous step 
ever taken by the United States. We do not call it a measure 
sanctioned by the American people ; for it was never submitted 
to the people. It was a step — a step taken by the nation, in 
the acts of its Government. It is not the question, whether 
Texas should be annexed ; for that, we consider, was an inevit- 
able destiny. But it is the time, the manner, and the principles 
involved in the step ; and the consequences, now past, and yet 
to come. The time was unseasonable ; the manner was forced ; 
the principles involved were a violation of good faith, and of 
public law ; and the consequences are the natural product of 
violence. The pacific course proposed by Mr. Clay, in his 
Raleigh Letter, would, in all probability, have brought Texas 
into our family before this time, without our coming into col- 
lision With Mexico. For Mexico was too weak even to fight 
against Texas, by invading her, and the two powers would 
doubtless have made peace long before this ; and thus we would 



THE RALEIGH LETTER. 35 

have annexed Texas, without war. And the rapid disorganiza- 
tion of Mexico, and her constant need of money, would have 
placed any amount of her territory which we mi^'ht have wished 
to buy, at our disposal — not less than what we have acquired by 
the war, at far less cost than the war, added to the purchase of 
peace on the terms of the treaty. It is only by such considera- 
tions, founded upon well-known facts and moral certainties, that 
we can properly appreciate this subject. By this means, we 
know as well what would, in all probability, hove happened, by 
regarding Mr. Clay's counsels, as what has happened by disre- 
garding them. 

And what, in fact, is the latter alternative ? Precisely what 
Mr. Clay predicted. We had a war, which cost us a hundred 
millions of dollars and ten thousand men, not to speak of the 
cost of money and men, and loss of territory, to Mexico ; and 
all the responsibility of the Mexican losses lie at our door, be- 
cause we adopted the war by annexation, "Annexation and 
war with Mexico," says Mr. Clay in his letter, '•' are identical ;" 
and so it proved. 

But we have not only had the war and all its responsibilities, 
but that more abiding, and if possible still more calamitous result 
of arraying the North against the South, the free States against 
the slave States, in ever aggravating forms, v/hich Mr. Clay also 
predicted would come from annexation and war, brought about 
with the motive of acquiring a political balance of power, which 
Mr. Clay said was not to be disguised. Such a domestic strife, 
fomented by such a cause, he predicted, was not likely to have 
an end, and he distinctly expressed his apprehension that it would 
only be aggravated by time. Such, we all know, has been the 
fact. 

Again, Mr. Clay, in his letter, refers repeatedly to the opinion 
of mankind, of an enlightened world, as a providential agency, 
which no nation, however powerful, can safely hold in contempt. 
This, he feared, would be against us, in such a course. Doubt- 
less it has been so. We are accused by the world of having 
made this war for territorial aggrandizement, and it will be im- 
possible to do away with that impression. 

But the disturbance of the principles, or what may fitly be 
called, the morals of Public Law, or of the Law of Nations, is 
one of the most important and most disastrous effects of the an- 
nexation of Texas, in the manner thereof. Although jNIr. Clay 



36 REMARKS. 

did not dwell specifically on this point, it is evidently implied in 
his argument. 

The formation of the international code, commonly called 
Piihiic Law, has been the work of many centuries, as the result 
of the experience and necessities of mankind in all ages of the 
world. It is properly a code of Public Morals between nations 
as individuals, in their relations to and intercourse with each 
other, founded upon what have been conventionally regarded 
and settled as sound principles of right — of justice — the disturb- 
ance of which by any nation whatever, is not only a great re- 
proach to that nation in the eyes of the whole world, but a very 
great calamity, not to say crime, in the conduct of international 
relations. It is an assault on the recognized and established 
bulwarks of international civilization, and so far as it goes, it im- 
pairs their strength and efficiency. It is a treading back to- 
ward barbarism, or lawlessness, in international relations. 

And yet, it can not be denied that onr treatment of Mexico, in 
the annexation of Texas, was a breach of Public Law. Observe 
Mr. Clay's recognition of the rights of Mexico in the case ; and 
those rights were determined by Public Law. In the annexation 
of Texas, therefore, the United States incurred all the responsi- 
bility and reproach of violating and trampling under foot the 
established principles of Public Law involved in the case. 

If Mr. Clay had been a prophet, inspired by Heaven, he could 
hardly have given a truer picture of future and contingent events, 
than is portrayed in his Raleigh Letter. All that he foretold in 
that letter, so far as the book of events has been opened, has 
come to pass. 



CHAPTER II. 

Occupation of the "Winter of 1844-'45. — General Jackson and his Party. — Not a 
Party of Principle. — ^The Whig Party. — Payment of Mr. Clay's Debts by his 
Friends. — Silver Vase Presented by the Gold and Silver Artisans of New York. 

Statue of Mr. Clay ordered by Ladies of Richmond. — Silver Vase by Ladies 

of Tennessee. — Mr. Clay's Speech on receiving it. — ^Ir. Clay at New Orleans 
and St. Louis. — His Speech at Xew Orleans for the famisliing Irish. — Letter of 
Thanks from two Irishmen.— Death of Colonel Henry Clay, and General Taylor's 
Letter to Mr. Clay announcing the sad event. — Mr. Clay's Baptism and first 
Communion. — Letter from Rev. Mr. Berkley, Mr. Clay's Pastor, on his Cliristian 
Character. — Anecdote to same point. — Mr. Clay's Visit to Cape May, and Inter- 
view -with a Committee from New York, and Others. — Speeches. — Return to 
Ashland. 

Mr. Clay spent the winter of lS44-'45 at Ashland, in the 
bosom of his family, with an immense correspondence on his 
hands, chiefly devoted by those addressing him, to the subject 
of the great disappointment at the result of the Presidential elec- 
tion of 1844. Extracts from this correspondence will be found 
in the nineteenth chapter of the second volume of this work, and 
a series of entire letters on the same subject, in the twelfth chap- 
ter of the fourth volume, which was first published under the 
title of the Private Correspondence of Henry Clay. The side 
of this correspondence addressed to Mr. Clay, was literally the 
pouring forth of a nation's heart in grief for a" public misfor- 
tune, and in despair for the future of the country. It was like a 
discomfiture in a great battle for a nation's existence. A moiety 
of the people of the United States, endowed with nine tenths of 
the intellect and intelligence of the nation, and with, perhaps, an 
equal proportion of its wealth, had hoped for full thirty years to 
see Henry Clay President of the United States. Ever since 
1825, the disastrous influence of the " great conspiracy," the 
history of which is given in the fourteenth chapter of the first 
volume, hung upon the neck of Mr. Clay's political fortunes 
like a millstone. It was one of those fatalities lying in the path 



38 THE JACKSON PARTY. 

of a great man, w'hich no human sagacity could foresee, and no 
opposii)g power avert. 

General Jackson, with his military fame, was just the man to 
make a party of his own, not founded on principles, but a party 
that could accommodate itself to a total want of principle. Gen- 
eral Jackson himself was made of rude materials, but of great 
force of character. He was doubtless endowed with a high or- 
der of military talent, as evinced by his brilliant victory over the 
British forces, on the 8th of January, 1815, for which he justly 
merited, and has never wanted the gratitude and honors of the 
nation. His rough character and military fame were the true 
elements which made him the head of a party that would natur- 
ally be dazzled with the latter, and never displeased with the 
former. It was the more uncultivated portion of the people 
which he drew after him. The most charitable construction of 
General Jackson's character, in the part he acted against Mr. 
Clay, in the " Great Conspiracy." is, that he allowed himself to 
be imposed upon, and that he was made to believe that Mr. Clay 
had bargained with Mr. Adams, to use his influence in the House 
of Representatives, to make Mr. Adams president, if Mr. Adams 
would give him the State department, and thus cut off General 
Jackson from the Presidency, who had the highest vote in the 
Electoral Colleges. The Electoral vote of 1824 was 99 for Gen- 
eral Jackson, 84 for Mr. Adams, 41 for Mr. Crawford, and 37 
for Mr. Clay — iu all 261. By the Constitution, the choice lay 
between the first three, in the House of Representatives, and Mr. 
Adams was elected. It was General Jackson's interest to believe 
that such a bargain between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay was made, 
because it would be a powerful appeal to the sympathies of the 
nation. He professed to believe it, and was ever afterward the 
inijilacable enehiy of Mr. Clay. 

From that hour a party was formed, for a long time called the 
Jackson party — not a party of principle, but a personal party. 
An appeal was made to the less discriminating portion of the 
American people, to avenge the wrongs of a military chieftain, 
who, by means of a bargain between Mr. Adams and j\Ir. Clay, 
as alleged, had been unjustly barred from the Presidential chair ; 
and that appeal was sustained by tiie success of General Jackson 
in the Presidential election of 1828, and again in 181^2. It could 
not, therefore, he a party of principle, irrespective of men ; but it 
was General Jackson's party ; and General Jackson must always 



THE JACKSON PAllTY, 39 

be the opponent of Mr. Clay. Mr. Cloy was a statesman ; Gen- 
eral Jackson was not a statesman. If Mr. Clay was right in the 
great principles he advocated for a national policy, General Jack- 
son was wrong, for he must always take the opposite side ; and 
unfortunately for the country, tiie majority of the peo)ile went 
for General Jackson, but not for principle. For many years, the 
faith of the people in General Jackson was entirely personal. 

It was this peculiar origin of the party, the ruling elements of 
which were personal regard for General Jackson and opposition to 
Mr. Clay, that gave to it an unnatural, and we might, perhaps, 
say, an un-American character. It was not based upon Ameri- 
can principles, hut upon principles of party domination. What- 
ever would strengthen the party, and keep it in power, was the 
principle of the party ; and General Jackson's name was the 
great principle. But such a principle could not last always, and 
in 1840 it broke down, by reason of the misfortunes of the coun- 
try, which had come up/on it for adherence to that principle. 

Through all this unfortunate period, the more intelligent and 
more discriminating parts of the nation, who could not be se- 
duced by the eclat of military achievements, into the ranks of a 
party which had no principle but faith in " the Old Hero,"' as 
General Jackson was called, adhered to the principles of public 
policy advocated and expoiuided by Mr. Clay. They believed 
in those principles, and waited patiently for their tiiumph. 

In 1840 they did triumph ; and that was the time when, if 
Ml-. Clay had been put at the head of affairs, the policy of the 
country would have been fixed for fifty years, that is, forever; 
for it could never be changed after that. But unfortunately for 
the country, by the prevalence of evil counsels, Mr. Clay was 
not put in nomination. General Harrison died in diirty days 
after he was inaugurated, Mr. Tyler betrayed the party, and all 
was lost again to those who believed in Mr. Clay's principles, 
and who had trusted that the time was come for their triumph. 

But Mr. Clay was still alive, and in his vigor, bravely doing 
battle for his principles in the Senate of the United States, and 
using all his endeavors to save the nation from the disasters of 
such a betrayal as it had encountered in the hands of Mr. Tyler. 
Inspired by his example, the party of the nation adhering to his 
principles, still hoped on, till, in May, 1844, when Mr. Clay was 
nominated for the Presidency, they looked forward to victory 
under his banner. 



40 PAYMENT OF 

Is it, then, a subject of wonder, if, after having struggled for 
twenty years against such misfortunes, and finding themselves 
again overthrown, they should despair of the country, and ex- 
press their feelings of despondency, as they did, in correspond- 
ence with Mr. Clay, in the winter of 1844-45 ? 

It was during this winter that Mr. Clay received that touch- 
ing testimonial of his fidelity and sei-vices to the nation which 
is certified in the letter of Mr. Tilford, President of the Northern 
Bank of Kentucky, to the author, page 44, vol. i., and in Dr. 
Mercer's letter to ]Mr. Clay, page 527 of the Private Correspond- 
ence, in the fourth volume of this work. "When it became known, 
• in the winter above named — not from Mr. Clay himself, but from 
other sources — that he had become involved in pecuniary troub- 
les by loaning his name, and that Ashland was mortgaged for 
a considerable sum of money, the friends of Mr. Clay, in various 
parts of the country, particularly at New Orleans, Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, New York, and Boston came to his rescue, in so 
delicate a way, as shown in the letters above referred to, that he 
could not know who had done it. The struggles of Mr. Clay's 
mind, in accepting such a favor, were very great. Hence Dr. 
Mercer's advice: "Would it not be ungracious to reject the 
friendly hand that is tendered, to mortify those who are warmly 
attached to you, and to consult — shall 1 venture on the word ? — 
your pride, at the expense of their feelings ? My dear friend, 
you must submit ; there is no remedy." 

The sum raised in this way has been stated at ^50,000. 
That deposited in the Northern Bank of Kentucky, as will be 
seen by Mr. Tillbrd's letter above named, was $25,750. By 
this means, the mortgages on Ashland were lifted, and Mr. Clay 
was again placed in easy circumstances, to the end of his days. 
It is well known that Mr. Clay was idways prudent and econom- 
ical in his private affairs, and not less generous in his charities 
and liospitalities. It was fit that he who had done so much for 
his country should be saved from leciuiiary embarrassment, and 
be permitted to go down to his grave, leaving Ashland to his 
family, which, we believe, was their chief inheritance — an es- 
tate worth, probably, not far from $100,000. If Mr. Clay had 
pursued through life his profession as a lawyer and advocate, in- 
stead of devoting himself to public alfairs, no one acquainted 
with his luibils, and his unrivaled success at ilie bar, will doubt 
that he migh: easily have left an estate to his family of not less 



MR. clay's debts. 41 

than a million of dollars ; and yet, in the 67th year of his age, 
he was reduced to the verge of hankruptcy, and wonld have 
been plunged into that gulf but for the extremely delicate and 
timely aid which he received, as above and elsewhere narrated 
in this work. The author was with Mr. Clay much during this 
trial — a singular trial, consisting in the struggles of his own 
mind about accepting this favor, which, indeed, he could not 
avoid, as his debts were all paid, and the mortgages on his estate 
lifted, by unseen and unrevealed hands. In speaking on the 
subject, the author several times saw the tears start from Mr. 
Clay's eyes, and he was forced to turn aside to conceal his own. 
Still, take it all in all, it was one of the eminent luxuries of the 
social condition of man, demonstrating, that, if republics are 
ungrateful, private friends are not always so. In this affair, 
there was, doubtless, a mixture of personal regard for Mr. Clay, 
and of a sense of what the American people owed to him, both 
of which, in the hearts of those who contrived and accomplished 
this object, were equally creditable. 

It was in 1845 that the gold and silver artisans of New York 
presented to Mr. Clay, a splendid silver vase, the history of 
which, and of the occasion, is as follows : 

At the first session of the Congress of 1842, when the Tariff 
was under revision, the gold and silver artisans were alarmed for 
their trade, when they learned that the new bill, then maturing 
to its passage, had reduced the duty of 12; per cent, on gold 
and silver ware and jewelry, provided by the old Tarill', to 5 per 
cent. — a protection which they considered altogether insuflicient 
to foster their interests, 

A delegation was immediately appointed and proceeded to 
Washington. They had an interview with Mr. Fillmore, the 
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means in the House, 
who expressed his apprehensions that an interference in the 
details of the bib, then on its third reading, would put it in 
great peril. 

They passed directly to the Senate, where, after adjournment, 
they were introduced to Mr. Clay, and had a protracted conver- 
sation with him. In consequence of this interview, when the 
bill came up in the Senate, Mr. Clay proposed an amendment, 
raising the duty on silverware to 30, and that on jewel, y to 25 
per cent., and advocated it in one of his most persuasive speeches 



42 PRESENT OF SILVER VASE, 

— uhirh passed the Senate, and was acquiesced in by the 
House. 

In gratitude to Mr. Clay for this attention to their interests, 
the gold and silver artisans of New York, employers and journey- 
men, raised a subscription to present Mr. Clay with a superb 
silver vase, at a cost of ,$1000. The vase was manufactured by 
William Adams of New York, stands three feet high, and is of 
the most beautiful workmanship. The chasing is neat and ela- 
borate, the white frostwork contrasting finely with the burnished 
portion. The handles are light and graceful, beautifully chis- ■ 
eled, and fitted to the body with a gentle and symmetrical curve. 
Between them are two shields, one on each side. On one is de- 
picted, in chasing, a silversmith's work shop, with the men busily 
employed, and on the other is engraved the following in- 
scription : 

PRESENTED TO 

HENRY CLAY 

BY THE 

GOLD AND SILVER ARTISANS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 

AS A TRIBUTE OF THEIK RESPECT FOR THE FAITHFUL AKD PATRIOTIC MAXXER IX WHICH 

HE HAS DISCHARGED HIS PUBLIC TRUSTS, AXD ESPECIALLY FOR HIS EARLY 

AXD UXTiraXG ADVOCACY OF PROTECTION TO AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 

18 45. 

CO^klMITTEE. 

WILLIAM ADAMS, EDWARD Y. PRINCE, 

II. G. BALDWIN, DANIEL CAUrEXTElt, 

A. G. PECKHAM, DAVID DUNN. 

The richest part of the chasing is on the cover, which is sur- 
mounted by an eagle, with wings extended, as if alighting on a 
rock, against which the surrounding waters are vainly beating — 
a type of the man to whom it was presented. 

Tn (lie more private history of Mr, Clay, before he again and 
for the last time entered on the duties of public life, it may be 
remarked that his time was divided in the grateful oHiccs of do- 
mestic life, in the duties of hospitality made incumbent on a man 
whom all the world knew and felt an interest in calling upon, in 
superintending his agricultural allairs, which he always delighted 
in when exemption from public duty would allow of it, and in 
professional engagements, which never failed to fall u^jou him on 



STATUE TO MR. CLAY. 43 

his return to private life. His eminent success as an advocate at 
the bar, caused him to he sought for to the last, in im|iortaiit 
cases of the courts. 

The Indies of Richmond, Va., proud in cherishing the name 
of so great a son of that Commonwealth, and desirous of hand- 
ing down to posterity, in the Capitol of his native State, a suitable 
memorial of his person, employed Mr. Joel T. Hart, a native 
artist of rising fame, to manipulate a statue of Mr. Clay, which 
has been greatly admired as a most speaking likeness of the kind, 
and sent him on a mission to Italy to execute it in marble. 
Every art employed to represent the persons of men, in their 
various conditions of action and repose, has been invoked to per- 
petuate in public and in jirivate the memory of Mr. Clay. He 
has often told the author of these pages, that he desired to grat- 
ify all his friends in this particular, but that they could not easily 
estimate the time and patience required by the importunities of 
the various artists in commission for this purpose. Though Mr. 
Clay be dead, he will forever speak in these multifarious forms, 
in the statue, on the canvas, and in prints innumerable. Mon- 
ument after monument will be erected to him in the public eye, 
and the nation will never tire of the gratitude and honor due to 
his services, as expressed in these memorials. 

The statue of Mr. Hart, above referred to, as ordered by the 
ladies of Virginia, is described by a critic as follows : 

" Mr. Hart has blended the idea and spirit of action with the 
actual 1 resence and exliibition of repose — the latter always so 
essential to the highest and most agreeable effect of the sculptor's 
art. Mr. Clay is represented resting the weight of his Jjody j)rin- 
cipally upon his right foot, the left being thrown a little forward, 
and the toes turned out. The head is sufficiently erect to give 
dignity and spirit to the general bearing, without approacliing the 
oflensive and vulgar line of arrogance and self-esteem, and the 
face is turned slightly to the right, in the direction of the corre- 
sponding arm. The fingers of the left hand rest lightly and 
gracefully upon a pedestal, approj^riately placed, while his ricrht 
arm, just fallen from an uplifted position, is sutliciently extended 
from the elbow to show, with the open and forwaid-looUing palm, 
action just finished instead of continuous and habitual repose. 
The face is full of lol'ty animation, self-possession, and the re- 
pose of conscious power. 

" The costume is a simple citizen's dress, such as Mr. Clay 
usually wears. The coat, luibuttoned, is loose enough not to be 
stiff and formal ; shoes are worn intscad of boots, according to Mr. 



44 SILVER VASE 

Clay's invaiiahle custom ; and the shirt-collar is turned down, 
not according to his custom, l)ut as a matter of great conveniency, 
if not of necessity, to the artist, in the exhil)ition of the neck and 
throat." 

In IS 16. tlie ladies of Tennessee honored Mr. Clay with a sil- 
ver vase, of which Doctor M-Nairy, Mr. Clay's friend, was the 
bearer to Ashland. When presented to Mr. Clay, in the presence 
of numerous guests, by a speech from the doctor, Mr. Clay made 
the following reply: 

'■Dr. M-Nairy: — It is no ordinary occuiTence, nor any com- 
mon mission, that honors me by your presence. To be deputed, 
as yon have been, by a large circle of Tennessee ladies, to bear 
the flattering sentiment toward me which you have just so elo- 
quently expressed, and to deliver to me the precious testimonial 
of their inestimable respect and regard which you have brought, 
is a proud incident in my life, ever to be remembered with feel- 
ings of profound gratitude and deliglit. 

" My obligation to tliose ladies is not the less for the high 
opinion of me which they do me the honor to entertain ; because 
I feel entirely conscious that I owe it more to their generous par- 
tiality than to any merits I possess, or to the value of any public 
services which I have ever been able to render. 

" If, indeed, their kind wishes in relation to the issue of the 
last Presidential election had been gratified, I have no doubt that 
we should liave avoided some of those public measures, so preg- 
nant wiib the evils to our country, to which you have adverted. 
We should have preserved, undisturbed, and without hazard, 
peace with all the world, have had no unhappy war with a 
neighboring sister-repubUc, and, consequently, no deplorable 
waste of human life, of which that which has been sacrificed 
or inqjaired in an insalubrious climate, is far greater and more 
lamentable than what has been lost in the glorious achievements 
of a brave army, commanded by a skilful and gallant general. 

" We should have saved the nnlliuns of treasure which that 
unnecessary war has and will cost — an immense amount — suffi- 
cieni In nnprove every useful harbor on the lakes, on the ocean, 
on the iJulf of Mexico, and in the interior, and to remove obstruc- 
tions to navigation in all the great rivers in the United States. 

'• We should not have subverted a patriotic system of domestic 
protection, fostering the industry of our own [leople and the in- 
terests of our own country, the great benefits which have been 
practically denujustrated by experience, for the visionary jiromises 
of an alien policy of free trade, fostering the industry of foreign 
people and the interests of foreign countries, which lias brought 
ill its tram disaster and ruin to every nation that has had the 



TO MR. CLAY. 46 

temerity to try it. The beneficial Tariff of 1842, which raised 
both the people and the government of the United States ont of 
a condition of distress and embarrassment, bordering on bank- 
ruptcy, to a state of high financial and general prosperity, would 
now be standing unimpaired, in the statute-book, instead of the 
fatal Tariff of 1846, whose calamitous effects will, I apprehend, 
sooner or later, be certainly realized. 

"All this, and more of what has since occurred in the public 
councils, was foretold prior to that election. It was denied, dis- 
believed, or unheeded ; and we now realize the unfortunate con- 
sequences. But both philosophy and patriotism enjoin that we 
should not indulge in unavailing regrets as to the incurable past. 
As a part of history in which it is eml)odied, we may derive from 
it instructive lessons for our future guidance, and we ought to 
redouble our exertions to prevent their being unprofitably lost. 

" I receive with the greatest pleasure, the splendid and mag- 
nificent vase of silver which the ladies of Tennessee, whom you 
represent, have charged you to present to me. Wrought by 
American artists, tendered by my fair countrywomen, and brought 
to me by an ever-faithful, ardent, and distinguished friend, it 
comes with a triple title to my grateful acceptance. I request 
you'to convey to those ladies respectful and cordial assurances 
of my warm and heartfelt thanks and acknowledgments. Tell 
them I will carefully preserve, during life, and transmit to my 
descendants, an unfading recollection of their signal and gener- 
ous manifestations of attachment and confidence. And tell them, 
also, that my fervent prayers shall be offered up for their happi- 
ness and prosperity, and shall be united with theirs tliat they 
may live to behold our country emerged from the dark clouds 
which encompass it, and once more, as in better times, standing 
out, a bright and cheering example, the moral and political 
model and guide, the hope, and the admiration, of the nations 
of tiie earth. 

" I should entirely fail, Dr. M'Nairy, on this interesting occa- 
sion, to give utterance to my feelings, if I did not eagerly seize 
it to express to you, my good friend, my great obligations for 
the faithful and uninterrupted friendship which, in prosperous and 
adverse fortune, and amid all the vicissitudes of my checkered 
life, you have constantly, zealously, and fearlessly displayed. 
May you yet long live, in health, happiness, and prosperity, and 
enjoy the choicest blessings of a mercifid and bountiful Provi- 
dence, 

A part of the winter and spring of 1846, Mr. Clay spent at 
New Orleans on professional business, where, as ever, he was re- 
ceived and entertained with public and private welcome. On 
his return, in April, he visited St. Louis, where he was forced to 



46 • MR. CLAY AT NEW ORLEANS. 

gratify the public feeling, by receiving graciously, as he always 
did, the customary compliments and recognitions enthusiastically 
tendered to his person and to his services, A desire was mani- 
fested, m the next session of the Legislature of Kentucky, on the 
retirement of Governor Morehead from the Senate of the United 
States, that Mr. Clay should again represent the State in that' 
body ; but he declined the honor. The next winter Mr. Clay- 
was a«^ain found at New Orleans, and attended the anniversary 
of the landing of the Pilgrims. At the festal board he was of 
course toasted and brought out. The Mexican war was pend- 
ing. A sportive remark, dropping from his lips on that occasion, 
was made the occasion of some reproach by his political oppo- 
nents : " When I saw around me to-night General Brooke and 
other old friends, I felt half inclined to ask for some nook or 
corner in the army. I have thought that I might yet he able to 
capture or slmj a Mexican.^^ The words were so reported, 
though their correctness has been questioned. We do not know 
that Mr. Clay ever condescended to put himself right, as no fair 
mind could fail to recognize in the language a jeii cV esprit. It 
would only be used by enemies for a malign purpose, while he 
was in the field of public life. 

While still at New Orleans, in the early part of lS-17, a public 
meeting was held there in behalf of suffering and famishing Ire- 
land, and Mr. Clay was invited and urged to attend. Being still 
before the public, and regarded by a host of friends as still a can- 
didate for the Presidency, he saw the delicacy of his position, and 
for a moment paused, lest, in advocating that cause, his motives 
might be misinterpreted. But it was the cause of humanity, and 
after "consulting his pillow," as he said, his sympathies gained 
the point, and he went. 

Mr. Clay's speech on this occasion was a very effective one. 
It was precisely the field which suited the sympathies of his na- 
ture. The cause of humanity, in v/hatever condition of want 
or suffering, never appealed to him without a quick response 
from a feelinc; heart. The speech was as follows ; 

" Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens — I hesitated to accept 
the invitation which has brought me here. Being a mere so- 
journer, and not a member of this community, I doubted the 
})ropricty of my j^resence and jiarlicipation in the proceedings of 
this meeting, and apprehended that my motive might be misun- 
derstood. But — on consulting my pillow, and considering that 



HIS PLEA FOR IRELAND. 47 

the humanity of the ohjcct of this assemhly is honnded hy no 
latitude nor locality, and on2:ht to he co-exteiisivc with the whole 
human family — it seemed to me that all considerations of fastid- 
ious delicacy and etiqnette should he waived and merged into a 
generous and magnanimous efTort to contrihute to the relief of 
the sufferings which have excited our feelings. If I shonld he 
misconceived or misrepresented, the experience of a long life has 
taught me that the hest response to misconception and misrepre- 
sentation, is the fearless and faitliful discharge of duty, in all the 
conditions of life in which we may be placed ; and the answer 
to traduction and calumny, is conscious rectitude and the appro- 
bation of one's own heart. 

" Mr. President — If we were to hear that large numbers of the 
inhabitants of Asia, or Africa, or Australia, or the remotest part 
of the globe, were daily dying with hunger and famine — no 
matter what their color, \vhat their religion, or what their civil- 
ization — we shonld deeply lament their condition, and be irresist- 
ibly prompted, if possible, to mitigate their sufferings. But it is 
not the distresses of any such distant regions that have sum- 
moned us together on this occasion. The appalling and heart- 
rending distresses of Ireland and Irishmen, form the object of 
our present consultation. That Ireland, which has been in all 
the vicissitudes of our national existence our friend, and has ever 
extended to us her warmest sympathy — those Irishmen, who, in 
every war in which we have been engaged, on every battle- 
field, from Quebec to Monterey, have stood by us, shoulder to 
shoulder, and shared in all the perils and fortunes of the conflict. 

" The imploring appeal comes to us from the Irish nation, 
which is so identified with our own as to be almost part and 
parcel of ours — bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Nor is 
it any ordinary case of human misery, nor a few isolated cases 
of death by starvation, that we are called upon to consider. 
Famine is stalking abroad throughout Ireland — wiiolc towns, 
counties — countless human beings, of every age and of both 
sexes, at this very moment, are starving, or in danger of starving 
to death for bread. Of all the forms of dissolution of human 
life, the pangs and agony of that wiiich proceeds from famine 
are the most dreadful. If one dies fighting gloriously for his 
country, he is cheered in his expiring moments by the patriotic 
nature of his sacrifice. He knows that his surviving relatives 
and friends, while lamenting his loss, will be gratified and hon- 
ored by his devotion to his country. Poets, painters, sculptors, 
historians — will record his deeds of valor and perpetuate his re- 
nown. If he dies by the sudden explosion of the boilers of a 
steamboat, or by a storm at sea, death is quiet and easy, and 
soon performs his mission. A few piercing shrieks are uttered, 
he sinks beneath the surface, and all is still and silent. But a 
death by starvation comes slow, lingering, and excruciating. 



48 PLEA FOR IRELAND. 

From rlay to day. the wretched victim feels his flesh dwindling, 
his speech sinking, his friends falling around him, and he finally 
expires in horrible asony. 

" Behold the wretched Irish mother — with haggard looks and 
streaming eyes — lier famished children clinging to her tattered 
garments, and gazino: piteonsly in her face, besfgins for food ! 
And see the distracted hushand-father, with pallid cheeks, stand- 
ing by, horror and despair depicted in his countenance — tortured 
with the reflection that he can aff"ord no succor or relief to the 
dearest objects of his heart, about to be snatched forever from 
him by the most cruel of all deaths. 

" This is no fancy picture ; but, if we are to credit the terrible 
accounts which reach us from that theater of misery and wretch- 
edness, is one of daily occurrence. Indeed, no imagination can 
conceive — no tongue express — no pencil paint — the horrors of 
the scenes which are there daily exhibited. Ireland, in respect 
to food, is diflerently situated from all the countries of the world. 
Asia has her abundant supply of rice ; Africa, her dates, yams, 
and rice ; Europe, her bread of wheat, rye. and oats ; America, 
a double resource in the small grains, and a never-failing and 
abundant supply of Indian corn — that G:reat supporter of animal 
life, for which we are not half grateful enous;h to a bountiful 
and merciful Providence. But the staple food of large parts of 
poor Ireland is the potato, and when it fails, pinching want and 
famine follow. It is among the inscrutable dispensations of 
Providence, that the crop has been blighted these last two years; 
and hence the privation of food, and this appeal to the sympathy 
of American hearts. 

" Shall it be in vain ? Shall starving Ireland — the young and 
the old — dying women and children — stretch out their hands to 
us for bread, and find no relief? Will not this great city, the 
world's storehouse of an exhaustless supply of all kinds of food, 
borne to its overflowing warehouses by the Father of Waters, 
act on this occasion in a manner worthy of its high destiny, and 
obey the noble impulses of the generous hearts of its blessed in- 
habitants ? We are commanded, by the common Saviour of Ire- 
land and of us, to love one another as ourselves ; and on this, 
together with one higher obligation, hang all the law and prophets 
of our holy religion. We know, that of all the forms of human- 
ity and benevolence, none is more acceptable, in the sight of 
God, than the practice of charity. Let us demonstrate our love, 
our duty, and our gratitude to Him, by a liberal contribution to 
the relief of His sullering Irish children. 

" Fellow-citizens, no ordinary purpose has brought us together. 
This is no political gathering. If it had been, you would not 
have seen me here. 1 have not come to make a speech. When 
the heart is full, and agitated by its own feeling emotions, the 
paralyzed tongue finds utterance dillicult. it is not fervid clo- 



A LETTER TO MR. CLAY. 49 

quence, nor gilded words that Ireland needs — hut substantial 
food. Let us rise to the magnitude of the duty which is l)efore 
us, and by a generous supply from the magnitude of our means, 
evince the genuineness and cordiality of our sympathy and com- 
miseration." 



And is this the man that should pause, whatever misrepre- 
sentation or calumny might impend, and shrink from pleading 
the cause of a far-off famishing people, when he could speak 
so well and so tonchingly, on a theme that moved his own 
heart to the utterance of such words — words of consolation and 
relief to the dying — words, which, on that occasion, were not 
spoken in vain ? No, he was not that man. He had his re- 
ward in the pleasure of doing good, and the following extracts 
of a letter to him, from two Irishmen in New York, accompa- 
nied by a handsome present of cutlery, will show that the Irish 
heart can appreciate such efforts in behalf of their brethren : 

" It was the good fortune of one us to hear your speech in 
behalf of the famishing millions of our native land, when in 
New Orleans on business, during that dreadful winter of 1846-7. 
It has since been the fortune of the other to hear and to witness 
ill Ireland, and elsewhere in Europe, the estimation and gratitude 
which that speech has excited. It is our pleasing duty to thank 
God that your thrilling appeal to the best feelings of our com- 
mon humanity was the means, by stimulating the energies of 
ever-blessed charity among the American people, of saving thou- 
sands of our countrymen from a death of agony and horror. It 
must be an abiding joy to your generous heart to know that 
American benevolence is devoutly blessed in parlor and cabin, 
where e\en your name, illustrious as it is, had hardly been 
heard before the famine ; and that tliousands have been im])elled, 
by their deliverance from the worst effects of the dii-e calamity, 
to iuvoke blessings on the head of Henry Clay. 

" You have often, and most appropriately, received at the 
hands of your countrymen, by birtli, fitting acknowledgments 
of your services, in the shape of rare products of their inisur- 
passed mechanical ingenuity and skill. Our luunhle offering 
is the work of foreign artisans, in grateful acknowledgment of 
your ])Owerful aid to an oppressed and suffering race on the 
other side of the Atlantic. A\'e trust it may not, on that account, 
be unacceptable, but that among your many tokens of American 
esteem and thankfulness, a single remembrance of tlie tears of 
gratitude which, at the mention of your name, have bedewed 
the cheek of sulferiug Ireland, may not be unwelcome.*' 



50 DEATH OF 

Colonel Henry Clay, third son of ^Ir. Clay, was born in 1811, 
educated at West Point, took to the law as his profession, mar- 
ried well, traveled a while in Europe, and returned to settle down 
and practice law in Louisville. The author saw Colonel Clay at 
Lexington in the winter of 1844-5, and was deeply impressed 
with the imprint of his father's countenance stamped upon his 
face. The son seemed the copy of the father, and worthy tO| 
represent him. He received a commission as colonel of the 
Kentucky regiment in the army of General Taylor, and fell in 
the battle of Buena Vista. 

]Mr. Clay had just returned from New Orleans, and while sit- 
ting at dinner one day, his son, James B. Clay, entered to an- 
nounce the painful intelligence of the fall of his son Henry, at 
the battle of Buena Vista, the 22d of February. Not long after- 
ward he received the following letter from General Taylor : 

" IIead-Quarters, Army of OccrPAxiox, ) 
Agca Xueva, March 1. 1847. J 

" My dear Sir, — You will no doubt have received, before 
this can reach you, the deeply distressing intelligence of the 
death of your son in the battle of Buena Vista. It is with no 
wish of intruding upon the sanctuary of private sorrow, and 
with no hope of administering any consolation to your wounded 
heart, that I have taken the liberty of addressing you these few 
lines. But I have felt it a duty which I owe to the memory of 
the distinguished dead to pay a willing tribute to his many ex- 
cellent qualities ; and while my feelings are still fresh, to express 
the desolation which his untimely loss, and that of other kin- 
dled spirits, have occasioned. 

" X had but a casual acquaintance with your son tnitil he be- 
came for a lime a member of my military family ; alid I can 
truly say that no one ever won more rapidly upon my regard, 
or established a more lasting claim to my respect and esteem. 
Manly and honorable in every impulse, with no feeling but for 
the honor of the service and of the country, he gave every assur- 
ance that in the hour of need I could lean with confidence on 
his support. Nor was I disappointed. Under the guidance of 
himself and the lamented M'Koe, gallantly did the sons of Ken- 
tucky, in the thickest of the strife, uphold the honor of tiie State 
and of the country. 

"A grateful })eo[)l(> will do justice to those who fell on that 
eventful day. But 1 may be permitted to express the bcreav'e- 
ment which I feel in the loss of valued friends. To your son 
1 felt bound by the strongest ties of private regard ; and wiien I 



COLONEL CLAY. 51 

miss his familinr face, and those of M'Kcc and Hardin, I can 
say with triitli that I feel no exidtation in our success. 

" Witli the expression of my deepest and most heart-feU sym- 
pathies for your irreparahle loss, I remain your friend, 

'' Z. Taylor." 

"Hon. Henry Clay." 

If Mr. Clay had a great and strong heart for those exigences 
of life which put in requisition fortitude and daring, no man 
ever had a heart more susceptible of tenderness in the domestic 
and social relations, and it is remarkable that these attributes 
are usually found in company. As a husband and a father, 
Mr. Clay never failed to show himself exemplary and consider- 
ate. He loved his children, and had drunk deeply of the cup 
of affliction in parting with them, and in other forms of trial. 
In a former volume, we have had occasion to notice these be- 
reavements. His beloved daughters had all been stricken 
down in early life. And now a son, in whom he might well 
take pride, and in whom, doubtless, the tenderest sentiments of 
a father's love and hope had very much centered, had fallen in 
a cruel hour, though in the service, and fighting the battles of 
his country. But a few days before, he had said at New Or- 
leans, in his powerful appeal for famishing Ireland, " If one 
dies fighting gloriously for his country, he is cheered in his ex- 
piring moments by the patriotic nature of his sacrifice. His 
surviving relatives and friends will be gratified and honored by 
his devotion to his country. Poets, painters, sculptors, historians, 
will record his deeds of valor, and perpetuate his renown." 
Alas ! at the very moment while the father was uttering these 
sentiments, it may be (we have not the dates of both events, but 
they were not far apart) the son lay bleeding on the field of 
Buena Vista ! The father was a painter in his speech, and did 
his work well. And yet he found his speech was false, so 
far as it depicted " gratification of surviving relatives and friends," 
at the fall of their kindred in battle, thousli it be in the service 
of their country. Nature is stronger than the artificial senti- 
ments of glory. Doubtless the fall of friends in such a service 
is afterward a consolation. But the first and soul-absorbing 
sentiment of the father is : '' 0, Absalom, my son, my son !" 

Mr. Clay, doubtless, was well enough pleased that his son 
should engage in that service, and he was aware of its hazards. 
But there was hope of his safe return, and a conviction that he 



52 MR. clay's baptism 

would acquit himself with honor. Life is a battle, and death 
awaits the comliatants. We know what hope is, but we know 
not bereavement till it comes ; and then the head is bowed low. 
Silent submission to the awards of Providence is the sole ex- 
pression that befits the hour. We can go no further into the 
secrets of a father's bosom when his son falls. God only is 
acquainted with his sorrows. 

Wo come now to notice a very interesting event at this late 
period of Mr. Clay's life, narrated in the following extract from 
a letter dated at Lexington, June 25th, 1S47: 

" A notice was very generally circulated through the public 
papers of the country, some two or three years ago, to the effect 
that ^Ir. Clay had l)ecome a member of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Cliurch. The wish was doubtless father to the thouuht, as 
Mr. Clay had not at that time taken any such step. Ho has 
always been known to have the highest respect for the institu- 
tions of Christianity, and to liavc been a decided believer in the 
Divine authenticity of the Christian religion — his amiable and 
now deeply-afflicted \v\(e having, for many years, been a humble 
follower of its blessed Author. When the weather permitted 
it, living as he does a mile and a half from church, Mr. Clay 
has always been a regular attendant on its services ; and for 
two or three years past, having had more leisure from public 
duty, his attention had evidently been turned to the high con- 
siderations connected with things spiritual and eternal — his life 
having been devoted so intensely to the good of others, as 
scarcely, until this period of retirement, to leave him an oppor- 
tunity to think of himself. But he has at length consecrated 
his great powers to God. He was baptized in the little parlor 
at Ashland, on Tuesday, the 22d instant, together with one of 
his daughters-in-law (tlie other being already a member of the 
Church) and her four children, by the Rev. Edward F. Berkley, 
rector of Christ Church, Lexington. The baptism was admin- 
istered privately, for the reason that the congregation of Cin-ist 
Church are replacing their old church with a new edifice, now 
in rapid progress of erection, and are not suitably situated for 
the most solemn and decent administration of this rite in public. 

" When the minister entered the room, on this deeply solemn 
and interesting occasion, the small assembly, consisting of the 
innnediate family, a few family connections, and the clergyman's 
wift', rose up. In the middle of the room stood a large center- 
table, en which was jilaccd, filled with water, tiie magnificent 
cut-glass vase presented to Mr. Clay by some gentlemen of Pitts- 
burg. On one side of the room hung the large picture of the 
family cf Washington, himscir an Episcopalian by birth, by 



AND CIIllISTIAN CHARACTER. 53 

education, and a devout commimicant of the Church ; and 
immediately op])osite, on a side table, stood the bust of the 
lamented Harrison, with a chaplet of withered flowers hun^ 
upon his head, who was to have been confirmed in the Church 
the Sabbath after lie died— fit witnesses of such a scene. Around 
the room were suspended a number of family pictures, and 
among them the portrait of a beloved daughter, who died some 
years ago, in the tritimpiis of that faith which her noble father 
was now about to embrace ; and the picture of the late lost son, 
who fell at the battle of Buena Vista. Could these silent look- 
ers-on at the scene about transpiring, have spoken from the 
marble and the canvas, they would heartily have approved the 
act which dedicated the great man to God. There was a deep 
emotion pervading that small assembly, at the recital, under such 
circumstances, of the sublime ordinal of the Church."' 

The author visited Ashland in November, 1852, and accident- 
ally took up from the table in the parlor an elegantly bound 
Prayer-book, on the first blank page of which he found the 
two following records in Mr. Clay's own hand : 

" Presented to me by Mrs. Pinca, of New Orleans, in Febru- 
ary, 1847. H. Clay." 

" I was christened the 22d of June, 1847, by the Rev. Mr. 
Berkley, of CIn-ist Church, in the city of Lexington, in my 
house at Ashland, according to the forms of the Episcopal 
Church. I partook of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the 
fourth day of July, 1847, in the Chapel of Transylvania Uni- 
versity, in Lexington; and on the 15th day of the same month, 
I was confirmed in the same chapjel, by the Right Rev. Bishop 
Smith. H. Clay." 

The following are extracts of a letter, written in 1852, from 
the Rev. Edward F. Berkley, Mr. Clay's pastor above named, 
to the Rev. Dr. Biuler, Washington, D. C, touching Mr. Clay's 
religious character : 

"I have been acquainted with Mr. Clay and his family for 
seventeen years, and ior the last fourteen years have been rector 
of the church in which they worshiped; and have known them 
as a pastor usually knows his people. In his words and actions, 
Mr. Clay always expressed a very high respect for the institu- 
tions of religion, and great confidence in its Divine authenticity. 
He usually attended church with his family once a day on the 
Sabbath, when he was at home ; but not so regularly before as 
after he joined the church. He evidently came to think more 



54 MR. BERKLEY S LETTER. 

seriously and feel more deeply on the subject of religion, two or 
three years before he avowed his purpose to embrace it. 

'• At the time of his l<aptism, our present cliurch edifice was 
in the course of construction, and we worshiped in the best 
place we could find. Under these circumstances he prefeired 
bein? baptized at home. * * * * The vessel which con- 
tained the water from which he was baptized, was a very large 
cut-glass vase, presented to him by a manufacturer of such ware 
in the city of Pittsburg. 

" When I was about to begin the service, his family and sev- 
eral friends being present, T saw that he had no Prayer-l)Ook, and 
suggested that he might be aided in answering the questions in 
the service by using one. He replied, ' I think I shall be able to 
answer them ; ' and he did answer them with great emphasis and 
deep emotion. 

"Mr. Clay felt a lively interest in tlie prosperity of the church, 
and concerned himself mucli in the erection of our present 
church edifice. He attended all the meetings of the congrega- 
tion that were called, with a view of giving point and efiiciency 
to our plans, and aided by his counsel and his means in bringing 
the work to a successful completion. 

'' I never knew a j)erson to be more deeply interested in arriv- 
ing at the truth in religion than Mr. Clay. He did nothing by 
halves. In all that relates to man's salvation, he wished to un- 
derstand the Christian system thoroughly. # * =* * After 
his mind had been drawn to an investigation of the claims of 
religion upon himself, I scarcely ever met him at his office or at 
his house, that conversation did not turn upon this subject, in the 
course of which he would ask many questions in reference to the 
doctrines and teachings of Scripture. On one occasion, about 
three years ago, he became very ill. Being absent from the city, 
I did not see him until he liad got better. When I entered his 
room, he arose, and taking my hand in both of his, he said, with 
tears in his eyes, ' My dear sir, I am very glad to see you. I 
have been ill ; I have been very near the grave ; and I was sur- 
prised at the composure, and even pleasure, with which 1 was 
permitted to look into it.' Of his deep earnestness in a prej»ara- 
tion for that better world, from his first assumption of tiie vows 
of religion, I have always been well assured." 

Mr. Berkley speaks above of Mr. Clay's having *' thought more 
seriously on the subject of religion for two or three years before 
he avowed his jturpose to embrace it."' hi coincidence with 
this remark, tlie author of these pages woukl add that, in the 
winter of 1S44-45, Mr. Clay one day asked him, "if he could 
recommend some work that would lead an iuquiier after religious 
truths fi-uni wifhoiit, to its more vital parts uithiii ? '' The au- 



VISIT TO CAPE MAY. 55 

thor mentioned a work which lie thought was pertinent, and the 
next day saw it on Mr. Clay's table, who said he had begun to 
read it, and was pleased. On a Sunday evening, about the same 
time, the author and a gentleman from Boston were sitting with 
Mr. Clay in his parlor, when the conversation turned on some 
of the dark aspects of general society. A Bible lay on the cen- 
ter table, elegantly bound, in two volumes, and inscribed on the 
outside, in gold letters, '^Presented by the Ladies of Hartford,''^ 
(Conn). It appeared to have been placed there for Sunday use. 
Ml-. Clay, pointing to it, said, " That, gentlemen, is the only book 
to give us hope in darkness." 

We come, then, to an epoch in Mr. Clay's life, from which 
we are to regard him as a Christian. This notice of his char- 
acter, in this particular, will not be thought impertinent by those 
who respect the truth of history, and who would desire a faithful 
picture of the life of such a man. Before this time, he was ever 
a true American patriot ; from this time, he was the Christian 
Statesman. 

In August of this year, Mr. Clay made a visit to Cape May, for 
sea air and bathing, and took Philadelphia en route. His pres- 
ence in that city, as usual, was the occasion of some sensation 
among his friends, who desired to honor him. Indeed, the man- 
ifestations of public regard were of a very decided character — 
enthusiastic. In this, there was doubtless a strong element of 
sympathy for his recent overwhelming bereavement. The peo- 
ple could not be satisfied without seeing him, and hearing his 
voice again, if only to thank them for their kindness, and to say, 
" Good-night." He said a few words to the immense concourse 
in the street, from the balcony of his host, Mr. Henry White, 
with a touching allusion to the loss of his son, which drew tears 
from all eyes, and intimated the need he had of repose. He said 
he had left in part to escape from feelings that preyed upon him, 
and was happy in the evidences of sympathy which he every 
where met with. God was good, and his friends were still kind. 
The first was a religious consolation, and the second a favor 
which he highly appreciated. 

Cape May, however, was no retirement for Mr. Clay. The 
world followed him, and delegations from dilforent cities paid 
him their respects. On a day and hour appointed, IMr. Nicholas 
Dean of New York, addressed jVL-. Clay as follows : 



56 SPEECH TO 

'•'Through the nnexpecterl kindness of friends. T am the hon- 
oYci] instrument of exi)ressing to yon, sir, briefly, sentiments 
wliich arc common to us ail. * * * * We come in the 
name of four hundred thousand persons, to ask you once more 
to visit om- metropolis. * * * * Permit us, we pray you, 
sir, to announce to our friends, -with the speed of lightning, that 
Henry Clay will come to them. * * * * The great asfgre- 
gate heart of our city is throbbing to bid you welcome, thrice 
welcome, to its hospitalities." 

Mr. Clay replied : 

" Gentlemen of the committee from New York ; gentlemen of 
the committee from Trenton ; gentlemen of the committee from 
New Haven; gentlemen of the committee from Philadeliihia: 
Fellow-citizens — In all the uprightness of nature which I have 
ever endeavored to practice, I must tell you the objects and mo- 
tives which have brought me to the shores of the Atlantic. I 
returned to my residence, after pas.sing the winter at New Or- 
leans, on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of March last ; 
and in a day or two afterward, melancholy intelligence reached 
me. [Here Mr. Clay evinced great emotion.] I have been 
nervous ever since, and was induced to take this journey : for I 
could not look upon the partner of my sorrows without feeling 
deeper anguish. [The speaker was here overcome by his feel- 
ings, and paused some minutes, covering his face \vith his hands. 
At length, recovering himself, he resumed.] Every thing about 
Asiiland was associated with the memory of the lost one. Tlic 
very trees wliich his hands assisted me to plant, served to remind 
me of my loss. Had the stroke come alone, by Divine assist- 
ance, and sustained by the kindness of my friends and fellow- 
citizens, I could have Ixirne it with meekness and resignation. 
Hut of eleven children, four only now remain, [Great emotion.] 
Uf six lovely daughters, not one is left. Finding myself in that 
theater of sadness, I thougiit I would fly to the mountain's top, 
and descend to the ocean's wave, and by meeting with the sym- 
pathy of friends, obtain some relief for the sadness which sur- 
rounded iiif. r came for private purposes, and from jnivate mo- 
tives alunc. 1 have not sought these public manilestations, nor 
have 1 desired to escape them. My friend and traveling com- 
panion, Dr. Mercer, will tell you, that in Virgiiiia — m every sec- 
tion of the State of my birth — 1 have been implored to remain, 
if only lor a Tew hours, to exchange conirratulations with my 
fru'uds ; hiii i invanalily refused, and only staid m each })lace 
sulliciently long to exchange one vehicle for another. * * * 
1 had no ]>ublic object in view, hidillerent I am not, and call 
not he, [o the honor, welfare, and glory o[' my country. 



CO^MMITTEES. . 57 

"Gentlemen, T have trnly and sincerely disclosed the purpose 
of my jonrney ; bnt [ can not bnt deeply feel this maniiostation 
of yonr respect and regard. It is received with thankl'iihiess, and 
reaches the warmest feelings of my heart, that I, a private and 
hnmble citizen, without an army, without a navy, without even 
a constable's staff, should have been met, at every step of my 
progress, with the kindest manifestations of feeling — manifesta- 
tions of which, at present, a monarch or an emperor might well 
be proud. [Great applause.] No, I am not insensible to these 
tokens of public atfection and regard : I am thankful for them 
all. [Cheers.] 

" Gentlemen of the committees of New York, of Trenton, of 
New Haven, and of Philadelphia — I must reluctantly decline the 
honor of your invitations, and beg of you to excuse me. I trust 
to the alfection of those whom you represent, to excuse me ; for 
if I do not [ilace myself on the alfections of my countrymen, 
whither should I go, and where should I be? On the wide 
ocean, without a compass, and without a guide. [Very great 
applause.] I must beg of you, gentlemen of all these commit- 
tees, to retrace your steps, charged and surcharged with my 
warmest feelings of gratitude." 

From Cape May, Mr. Clay returned to Ashland, after a month's 
absence, with improved health and spirits. He had been among 
friends ; he needed it. There is no man so great and strong in 
mind, or so self-relying, who, when stricken down by affliction, 
may not be consoled by sympathy. Public admiration was Mr. 
Clay's rightful inheritance ; he was equally secure of public 
sympathy in a time of need, nor did he fail to receive it. 



CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Clay's feelings on the Mexican "War. — His Speech at Lexington, and Resolutions 
on the War. — A Defect of the Federal Constitution, — Popular Action in response to 
Mr. Clay's Speech. — Mr. Clay at 'Washington — His Speech before the Colonization 
Society. — Mr. Clay in the Supreme Court. — Death of Mr. Adams. — Mr. Clay's Re- 
ception at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. 

The war with Mexico broke out in February, 1S46, in the 
first year of Mr. Polk's administration. Mr. Clay, always for 
peace, when it could be maintained witli honor to the country, 
was opposed to the annexation of Texas, as we have before seen, 
on the ground that it must necessarily lead to \var, that it was in 
fact the adoption of the state of hostilities between Texas and 
Mexico, which, though inactive, was nevertheless pending ; and 
in the progress of annexation, the Government of Mexico served 
a form:>l notice on the Government of the United States that 
annexation would be viewed in the light of a declaration of war. 
But, as the strong too often disregard the menaces of the weak, 
this notice was of little avail, and Mr. Tyler, before the close of 
his administration, through the joint resolution of the two Houses 
of Congress, had consummated the act, and handed over the 
country to his successor, Mr. Polk — not ungrateful to the latter 
— with this millstone of war upon its neck. 

]\h". Clay, in his celebrated Raleigh Letter of April 17tli, 1S44, 
said, " Annexation and war Avith Mexico are identical ;" and so 
it tiirnod out. The sjurit of the country, unfortunately, more 
especially of the dominant party, was not extremely averse to 
war, in the case and in the circumstances; and Mr. Polk had 
only tt) contrive a pretext, easily found, to commit the nation to 
till- li.i/.:ir(l and its consequences. A large portion of the western 
domain df Texas, as now described, was disputed territory, occu- 
pied hy Mexicans, and under Mexican rule, at the time of and 
after annexation. In 1845, the first year of Mr. Polk's adminis- 
tration, General Taylor and his little army were posted at Cor- 



MEXICAN WAR. 59 

pns Christi, on the seaboard, and contiguous to the eastern bor- 
der of the disputed ground. He was ordered to march and take 
up his position on the Rio Grande, opposite Matamoras, thus 
traversing the disputed territory from its eastern to its western 
border, and violating its conditions as estabhshed by Pubhc Law. 
The Mexican army, posted on the opposite side of the river, im- 
mediately commenced hostilities, and soon after followed the bat- 
tles of Palo Alto, and of Resaca de la Palma. The war with 
Mexico was begun. How it was conducted, and how it was 
terminated, by the victorious arms of General Taylor and of Gen- 
eral Scott, are matters of history. Peace was at last dictated to 
Mexico, in her reduced and humbled condition, not without some 
generous considerations, but with a surrender of a large belt of 
her northern territories, extending from the Rio Grande to the 
Pacific, including California, the land of gold, though its im- 
mense wealth and great importance as an integral portion of the 
American Union, were not at that time appreciated. Those vast 
acquisitions of territory, and tiie subsequent development of their 
resources, have made the Mexican war popular in the United 
States, and no attempt to raise general discontent on that ac- 
count, has ever succeeded. Territorial aggrandizement and the 
extension of political sway, seem to be one of the aspirations of 
republics. How soon, if ever, this feeling of the American peo- 
ple will be rebuked by Providence, we do not profess competency 
to say. 

But J\Ir. Clay always looked upon such conquests, not only 
with diffidence, but with profound concern. He preferred nar- 
rower limits, in the hope of more abiding security, and of cer- 
tain and permanent prosperity. There is, perhaps, some ground 
of expectation that the peculiar constitutional frame ol' the Fed- 
eral Government, in giving to each of the United States such a 
quantum of sovereignty, will be an enduring bond of the Union ; 
and that this Union, instead of being dissolved, will only grow- 
stronger by time and stern trials. But Mr. Clay had his fears, 
though no one, knowing his character, would pronounce him a 
timid statesman. A more courageous heart never beat in the 
breast of man, when a fit occasion for its exemplification pre- 
sented, whether for private or public ends. But he was consci- 
entious ; " I would rather be right than be President." This 
well-earned claim, whicli cost him more than once or twice the 
sacrifice of the Presidential chair, will go down to posterity with 



60 MR. clay's speech 

infinitely more glory to him than the brightest diadem of earth. 
It will burn, and blaze, and increase in splendor, as time rolls on ; 
while the names of his successful competitors will be forgotten. 
Thoush given by himself, with no purpose of eclat, it describes 
the man, and all the world know it. 

Mr. Clay could not feel that it was right to go to war with 
Mexico. He was a lion, satisfied with a legitimate subsistence, 
that would not pounce on weak and defenseless game, nor pro- 
voke it, in mere wantonness, to a hopeless struggle. 

As we are giving the biography of Mr. Clay, and, in this case, 
his general feeling on the subject of the Mexican war, and not 
writing the history of that war, or a vindication of the country 
in wasing and carrying it on, or telling the story of its generally 
acceptable results, it is our business to give Mr. Clay's views, in 
regard to it, as a part of his own personal history. 

It was on the 13th of November, 1847, when the city of Mexi- 
co was in the possession of General Scott, and the whole of 
Mexico at our feet, and the great question of the terms of peace 
was pending, that Mr. Clay, called upon from all parts of the 
Union, to give his advice, not as a public man — for he was in 
retirement — but as a private citizen, delivered his memorable 
speech on the war, before an immense concourse of his fellow 
citizens at Lexington. 

\Vc shall give only a few extracts, though it was three hours 
long. The day was unpleasant. Hence the exordium : 

'^ The day is dark and gloomy, unsettled and uncertain, like 
the condition of our country in regard to the unnatural war with 
Mexico. The public mind is agitated and anxious, and is filled 
with serious apprehensions as to its indefinite continuance, and 
especially as to the consequences which its termination may 
bring forth, menacing the harmony, if not the existence, of our 
Union. It is under these circumstances I present myself before 
you. No ordinary occasion would have drawn me from the 
retirement in which I live ; but, while a single pulsation of the 
human heart remains, it should, if necessary, be dedicated to 
the service of one's country. And I have hoped that, although 
I am a private and humble citizen, an expression of the views 
and ojtinions I entertain might form some little addition to the 
general stock of information, and alford a small asi'^islance in 
delivering our country from the perils and dangers which sur- 
round it. * * * * * 

'• I have come here with no purpose to attempt to make a fine 



ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 61 

speech, or any ambitions oratorical display. T have broiisht 
with mo no rhetorical houqiicts to throw into this assemblage. In 
the circle of the year autumn lias come, and the season of flow- 
ers has passed away. In the progress of years, my sprinc-timc 
has gone by, and I, too, am in the autumn of life, and feel the 
frost of age. My desire and aim are to address yon earnestly, 
calmly, seriously, and plainly, npon the grave and momentous 
suTijects which have brought us together. Aiid I am most so- 
licitous that not a solitary word may fall from me offensive to any 
party or person in the whole extent of the Union. * # * 

" War, pestilence, famine, by the common consent of man- 
kind, are the three greatest calamities Avhich can befall our 
species ; and war, as the most direful, justly stands in front. 
Pestilence and famine, no doubt for wise although inscrutable 
pnrposes, are inflictions of Providence, to which it is our duty, 
therefore, to bow Avith obedience, humble submission, and resig- 
nation. Tiieir duration is not long, and their ravages are limited. 
They bring, indeed, great affliction while they last, but society 
soon recovers from their effects. War is the voluntary work of 
our own hands, and whatever reproaches it may deserve should 
be directed to ourselves. When it breaks out, its duration is 
indefinite and unknown — its vicissitudes are hidden from our 
view. In the sacrifice of human life, and in the waste of human 
treasure, in its losses and its burdens, it affects both belligerent 
nations ; and its sad effects of mangled bodies, of death and of 
desolation, endure long after its thunders are hushed in peace. 
War unhinges society, disturbs its peaceful and regular industry, 
and scatters poisonous seeds of disease and immorality, v/hich 
continue to germinate and diffuse their baneful influences long 
after it has ceased. Dazzling by its glitter, pomp, and paseantry. 
it begets a spirit of wild adventure and romantic enterprise, and 
often disqualifies those who embark in it, after their return from 
the bloody fields of battle, from engaging in the industrious and 
peaceful vocations of life. 

" We are informed by a statement, which is apparently cor- 
rect, that the number of our countrymen slain in this lamentable 
Mexican war, although it has yet been of only eighteen months' 
existence, is equal to one half of the whole of the American 
loss during the seven years' war of the Revolution ! And I 
venture to assert that the expenditure of treasure which it has 
occasioned when it shall come to be fairly ascertained and footed 
up, will be found to be more than half of the pecuniary cost of 
the war of our independence. And this is the condition of the 
party whose arms have been every where constantly victori- 



/-\1|0 I ^ Tf TT tP * 



" How did we unhappily get involved in this war? It was 
predicted, as a consequence, of the annexation of Texas to the 
United States. If we had not Texas, we should have had no 



62 MR. clay's speech 

^y^^ * * * * Notwithstanding: a state of virtual war 
necessarily resulted from the fact of the ainiexation of one of 
the belligerents to the United States, actual hostilities might pro- 
bably have been averted by prudence, moderation, and wise 
statesmanship. If General Taylor had been permitted to remain 
where his own good sense prompted him to believe he ought to 
remain, at Corpus Christi ; and if a negotiation had been opened 
with Mexico, in a true spirit of amity and consideration, war, 
possibly, might have been prevented. But, instead of this peace- 
ful and moderate course, while Mr. Slidell was bending his way 
to Mexico, with his diplomatic credentials, General Taylor was 
ordered to transport his cannon and plant them in a warlike 
attitude opposite to Matamoras, on the east bank of the Rio 
Bravo, within the very disputed territory, the adjustment of 
which was to be the object of Mr. Slideirs mission. What else 
could have transpired but a conflict of arms ? 

" Thus, the war commenced ; and the President, after having 
produced it, appealed to Congress. A bill was prepared to raise 
fifty thousand volunteers, and in order to commit all who should 
vote for it, a preamble was inserted, falsly attributing the com- 
mencement of the war to the act of Mexico. I have no doubt 
of the patriotic motives of those who, after struggling to divest 
the bill of that flagrant error, found themselves constrained to 
vote for it. But I must say that no earthly consideration would 
have ever tempted or provoked me to vote for a bill with a pal- 
pable falsehood stamped on its face. Almost idolizing truth as I 
do, I never could have voted for that bill. 

'• Does any considerate man believe it possible that two such 
immense countries, with territories of nearly equal extent, with 
populations so incongruous, so diflerent in race, in language, in 
religion, and in laws, could be blended together in one harmoni- 
ous mass, and happily governed by one common authority ? 
Murmm-s, discontents, insurrections, rebellion, would inevitably 
ensue, until the incompatible parts would be broken asunder, 
and possibly, in the frightful struggle, our present glorious Union 
itself would be dissevered or dissolved. We ought not to forget 
the warning voice of all history, which teaches the dilliculty of 
combining and consolidating together, conquering and the con- 
quered nations. After the lapse of eight hundred years, during 
which the Moors held their conquest of Spain, the idomitable 
courage, perseverance, and obstinacy of the Spanish race fuially 
triunq)hed, and expelled the African invaders from the peninsula. 
And, even within our own time, the colossal power of Napoleon, 
when at its loftiest height, was incompetent to subdue and sub- 
jugate the proud Castilian. And here, in our own nciglibor- 
houd, Lower Canada, which near one hundred years ago, after 
the conclusi(»n of tlie seven years' war, was ceded by France to 
Great Bniaiu, remanis a foreign land in the midst of British 



ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 63 

provinces, forcisn in feeling and attachment, and foreign in laws, 
lansuaso, and religion. And what has been the fact Mntli poor, 
gallant, generons, and oppressed Ireland ? Centuries have passed 
since the overhearing Saxon overrun and subjugated the Emerald 
Isle. Rivers of Irish blood have flowed during the long and 
ardnous contest. Insurrection and rebellion have been the order 
of the day ; and yet, np to this time, Ireland remains alien in 
feelins:, allcction, and sympathy, toward the power which has so 
long borne her down. Every Irishman hates, with a mortal 
hatred, his Saxon oppressor. Although there are great territorial 
difte^nces between the condition of England and Ireland, as 
compared to that of the United States and Mexico, there are 
some points of striking resemblance between them. Both the 
L-ish and the Mexicans are probably of the same Celtic race. 
Both tlie English and the Americans are of the same Saxon 
origin. The Catholic religion predominates in both the former, 
the Protestant among both the latter. Religion has been the 
fruitful canse of dissatisfaction and discontent between the Irish 
and the English nations. Is there no reason to apprehend that 
if^'^onld become so between the people of the United States and 
those of Mexico, if they were united together? Why should 
we seek to interfere with them in their mode of worship of a 
common Saviour ? We believe that they are wrong, especially 
in the exclusive character of their faith, and that we are right. 
They think that they are right and we wrong. What other rule 
can there be than to leave the followers of each religion to their 
own solemn convictions of conscientious duty toward God? 
Who, but the great Arbiter of the Universe, can judge in such a 
question ? For my own part, I do sincerely believe and hope, 
that those who belong to all the departments of the- great Church 
of Christ, if, in truth and purity, they conform to the doctrines 
which they profess, will ultimately secure an abode in those 
regions of bliss which all aim finally to reach. 

" But I suppose it to be impossible that those who favor, if 
there be any who favor the annexation of Mexico to the United 
States, can think tliat it ought to be perpetually governed by 
military sway. Certainly no votary of human liberty could 
deem it right that a violation should be perpetrated of the right 
principles of our own Revolution, according to which, laws 
ought not to be enacted and taxes ought not to be levied, with- 
our representation on the part of those who are to obey the one 
and pay the other. Then, Mexico is to participate in our coun- 
cils, and equally share in our legislation and government. 
But, suppose she would not voluntarily choose representatives to 
the national Congress, is our soldiery to follow the electors to 
the ballot-box, and by force to compel them, at the point of the 
bayonet, to deposit their ballot ? And how are the nine millions 
of Mexican people to be represented in the Congress of the 



64 MR. clay's speech 

United States of America, and the Conaress of the United 
States of the Repubhc of Mexico combined ? Is every Mexican, 
witliont regard to color or taste, per capitum, to exercise the 
elective franchise ? How is the quota of representation between 
the two reiniblics to be fixed ? Where is the seat of common 
government to be estal»lished ? And who can foresee or foretell,^ 
if ^lexico, vohmtarily or by force, were to share in the common' 
government, what conld he the consequences to her or to us? 
Unprepared, as I fear lier population yet is, for the practical 
enjoyment of self-government, and of habits, customs, language, 
laws", and religion, so totally different from our own. we iliould 
present the revolting spectacle of a confused, distracted, and 
motley government. We should have a Mexican party, a Pacific 
Ocean party, an Atlantic party, in addition to the other parties 
which exist, or with which we are threatened, each striding to 
execute its own particular views and purposes, and reproaching 
the others with thwarting and disappointing them. The Mexi- 
can representation, in Congress, would probably form a separate 
and impenetrable corps, always ready to throw itself into the 
scale of any other party, to advance and promote ^Mexican inte- 
rests. Sucli a state of things could not long endure. Those 
whom God and geography have pronounced should live asunder, 
could never be permanently and harmoniously united together. 

" Do we want for our own happiness or greatness the addition 
of Mexico to the existing Union of our States? If our popula- 
tion were too dense for our territory, and there was a difficulty 
in obtaining honorably the means of subsistence, there might be 
some excuse for an attempt to enlarge our dominions. But we 
have no such apology. We have already, in our glorious coun- 
try, a vast ^nd almost boundless territory. Beginning at the 
north, in the frozen regions of the British provinces, it stretches 
thousands of miles along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the 
Mexican Gulf, until it almost reaches the tropics. It extends to the 
Pacific Ocean, borders on those great inland seas, the lakes, which 
separate us from the possessions of Great Britain, and it embraces 
the great father of rivers, from its uppermost source to the Balize, 
and the still longer Missouri, from its month to the gorges of the 
Rocky Mountains. It comprehends the greatest variety of the rich- 
est soils, capable of almost all the productions of the earth, except 
tea and coffee and the spices, and it includes every variety of 
climate which the heart could wish or desire. We have more 
than ten thousand millions of acres of waste and unsettled lands, 
enough for the subsistence of ten or twenty times our present 
population. Ought we not to be satisfied with such a country ? 
Od'ilit we not to be profoumlly thankful to the Giver of all 
good things for such vast and bountiful land ? Is it not the 
height of ingratitude to llini to seek, by war and conquest, in- 
dulging in a spirit of rapacity, to acquire other lands, the homes 



OS THE MEXICAN WAR. 65 

and habitations of a lar^e portion of His common children ? If 
we pursue tlie olijcct of such a conquest, besides mortcrasitig the 
revenue and resources of this country for a^es to come, in the 
form of an onerous national del)t, we should have greatly to 
augment that debt, by an assumption of tlic sixty or seventy 
millions of the national debt of Mexico. For I take it that 
nothing is more certain than that, if we obtain voluntarily or by 
conquest a foreign nation, we acquire it with all the incum- 
brances attached to it. In my humble opinion, we are now 
bonnd, in honor and morality, to pay the just debt of Texas. 
And we should be equally bound, by the same obligations, to 
pay the debt of Mexico if it were annexed to the United 
States. * * * * 

" It may be ar2:ued that, in admitting the injustice of slavery, 
I admit the necessity of an instantaneous reparation of that in- 
justice. Unfortunately, however, it is not always safe, practica- 
ble, or possible, in the great movements of states and public 
affairs of nations, to remedy or repair the infliction of ]n-evious 
injustice. In the inception of it, we may oppose and denoimce 
it, by our most strenuous exertions, but, after its consummation, 
there is often no other alternative left us but to dei)lore its i:)erpe- 
tration, and to acquiesce, as the only alternative, in its existence, 
as a less evil than the frightful consequences which might ensue 
from the vain endeavor to repair it. Slavery is one of those un- 
fortunate instances. The evil of it was inflicted upon us by the 
parent country of Great Britain, against all the entreaties and re- 
monstrances of the colonies. And here it is among and amid us, 
and we must dispose of it as best we can under all the circum- 
stances which surround us. It continued, by the importation of 
slaves from ^Vfrica, in spite of colonial resistance, for a period of 
more thau a century and a half, and it may require an equal or 
longer lapse of time before our country is entirely rid of the evil. 
And, in the mean time, moderation, prudence, and discretion, 
among ourselves, and the blessings of Providence, may be all 
necessary to accomplish our ultimate deliverance from it. Ex- 
amples of similar infliction of irreparable national evil and in- 
justice might be multiplied to an indefmite extent. The case 
of the annexation of Texas to the United States is a recent and 
an obvious one, which, if it were wrong, can not now be repaired, 
Texas is now an integral part of our Union, with its own volun- 
tary consent. Many of us opposed the annexation with honest 
zeal and most earnest exertions. But who would now think of 
perpetrating the folly of casting Texas out of the Confederacy, 
and throwing her back upon her own independence, or into the 
arms of Mexico ? Who would now seek to divorce her from 
this Union ? The Creeks and the Cherokee ludians were, by 
tlie most exceptionable means, driven from their country, and 
transported beyond the Mississippi river. Their lands have been 



66 MR. clay's speech 

fairly purchased and occupied by inhabitants of Georgia, Alaba- 
ma. Mississippi and Tennessee. Who would now conceive the 
flacrrant injustice of expell ins: those inhabitants and restoring the 
Indian country to the Cherolcees and Creeks, under color of re- 
pairing the original injustice ? During the war of our Revolu- 
tion, millions of paper money were issued by our ancestors, as 
the only currency with which they could achieve our liberty and 
indcpondence. Thousands and tens of thousands of families 
were stripped of tiieir homes and their all, and brought to ruin, 
by living credit and confidence to that spurious currency. Stern 
necessity has prevented the reparation of that great national in- 
justioe. 

'■ Shall this war be prosecuted for the purpose of conquering 
Mexico, and annexing it, in all its extent, to the United States ? 
I will not attribute to the President of the United States any 
such design ; but I confess I have been shocked and alarmed by 
the manifestations of it in various quarters. Of all the dangers 
and misfortunes which could befall this nation, I should regard 
that of its becoming a warlike and conquering power, the most 
direful and fatal. History tells the mournful tale of conquering 
nations and conquerors. The three most celebrated conquerors 
in the civilized world were Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon. 
The first, after overrunning a large portion of Asia, and sighing 
and lamenting that there were no more worlds to subdue, met a 
premature and ignoble death. His lieutenants quarreled and 
warred with each other for the spoils of his victories, and finally 
lost them all. Ca:!sar, after conquering Gaul, returned with his 
triumpiumt legions to Rome, passed the Rubicon, won the battle 
of Pharsalia, tramped upon the liberties of his country, and ex- 
pired by the patriotic hand of Brutus. Bui Rome ceased to be 
free. War and conquest had enervated and corrupted the masses. 
The spirit of true liberty was extinguished, and a long line of 
emperors succeeded, some of whom were the most execrable 
monsters that ever existed in human form. And that most ex- 
traordinary man, perhaps, in all history, Napoleon, after subju- 
gating all continental Europe, occupying almost all its capitals — 
seriously threatening, accorduig to M. Thiers, proud Albion her- 
self — and decking the brows of various members of his family 
with crowns torn from the heads of other monarchs, lived to be- 
hold his own dear France itself in the possession of his enemies, 
and was himself made a wretched cai)tive, and, far removed from 
country, family, and friends, breathed his last on the distant and 
inhospitable rock of St. Helena. The Alps and the Rhine had 
been claimed as the natural boundaries of France, but even these 
could not be secured in the treaties to whicli she was forced to 
submit. Do you believe that the jieople of .Macedon or Greece, 
of R^mie or of Fiance, were benefiied individually or collect- 
ively by the triumphs of their great captains? Their sail lot 



ON THE MEXICAN WAR. 67 

was immense sacrifice of life, heavy and intolerable burdens, and 
the ultimate loss of liberty itself. # «: * 

" Of all the possessions that belonfj to man, in his collective or 
individual condition, none should be preserved and cherished 
with more sedulous and unremitting care than that of an un- 
sullied character. It is impossihle to estimate it too highly in 
society, when attached to an individual, nor can it be exagge- 
rated or too greatly magnified in a nation. Those who lose or 
arc indifferent to it, become just ohjects of scorn and contempt. 
Of all the abominahle transactions which sully the pages of his- 
tory, none exceed in enormity that of the dismemberment and 
partition of Poland by the three great continental powers, Russia, 
Austria, and Prussia. Ages may pass away, and centuries roll 
aroimd; but so long as human records endure, all mankind will 
unite in execrating the rapacious and detestahle deed. That was 
accomplished by overwhelming force, and by the unfortunate ex- 
istence of fatal dissensions and divisions in the bosom of Poland. 
That tlie power of the United States is competent to the con- 
quest of Mexico, is quite probable. But let us avoid affixing to 
our name and national character a similar, if not a worse stigma 
than that involved in the partition of Poland. I am afraid that 
we do not now stand well in the opinion of other parts of Chris- 
tendom. Repudiation has brought upon us much reproach. All 
the nations, I apprehend, look upon us, in the prosecution of the 
present war, as being actuated by a spirit of rapacity, and an in- 
ordinate desire for territorial aggrandizement." 

At the close of this speech, which was one of the great efforts 
of Mr. Clay's life, and delivered in his 71st year, he submitted 
the following resolutions : 

" 1. Resolved, As the opinion of this meeting, that the primary 
cause of the present unhappy war, existing between the United 
States of America and the United States of the re[)ublic of Mexi- 
co, was the annexation of Texas to the former; and that the im- 
mediate occasion of hostilities between the two republics arose 
out of tlie order of the President of the United States for the re- 
moval of the army under the command of General Taylor, from 
its position at Corpus Christi, to a point opposite Matamoras, on 
the cast bank of the Rio Bravo, within territory claimed by both 
republics, but then under the jurisdiction of that of Mexico, and 
inhabited by its citizens; and that the order of the President, for 
the removal of the army to that point was improvident and un- 
constitutional, it being without the concurrence of Congress, or 
even any consultation with it, although it was in session : but 
that Congress having, by subsequent acts, recognized the war 
thus brought into existence, without its ])revious authority or 
consent, the prosecution of it became thereby national. 



68 RESOLUTION'S. 

"2. Resolved, That in -the absence of any formal and public 
declaration by Congress of the objects for which the war ousht 
to be prosecuted, the President of the United States, as chief 
masistrate. and as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of 
the United States, is left to the guidance of his own judgment 
to prosecute it for such purposes and objects as he may deem the 
honor and interest of the nation to require. 

'* 3. Resolved, That by the Constitution of the United States. 
Congress, being invested with power to declare war, and grant 
letters of marque and reprisal, to make rules concerning captures 
on land and water, to raise and support armies, to provide and 
maintain a navy, and to make rules for the government of the 
land and naval forces, has the full and complete war-malcing 
power of the United States; and, so possessing it, has a right to 
determine upon the motives, cause, and objects, of any war, 
when it commences, or at any time during the progress of its 
existence. 

" 4. Resolved, As the further opinion of this meeting, that it is 
the right and duty of Congress to declare by some authentic act. 
for what purposes and objects the existing war ought to be 
further prosecuted ; that it is the duty of the President in his 
official conduct to conform to such a declaration of Congress ; 
and that if, after such declaration, the President shoidd decline 
or refuse to endeavor, by all the means, civil, di})louiatic, and 
military, in his power, to execute the aimounced will of Con- 
gress, and, in defiance of its authority, should continue to prose- 
cute the war for purposes and objects other than those declared 
by that body, it would become the right and duty of Congress 
to adopt the most efiicacious measures to arrest the further pro- 
gress of the war, taking care to make ample provision for the 
.honor, the safety and security of our armies in Mexico, in every 
contingency. And, if Mexico should decline or refuse to con- 
clude a treaty with us, stipulatins for the i)urposes and objects so 
declared by Congress, it would be the duty of the Government 
to prosecute the war, with the utmost vigor, uiuil they were 
attained by a treaty of peace. 

'' 5. Rei^olved, That we view with serious alarm, and are ut- 
terly opposed to any purpose of annexing iMexico to the United 
States, in any mode, and especially by conquest ; that we be- 
lieve the two nations could not be happily governed by one 
common authority, owing to their great ditlerence of race, law, 
language, and religion, and the vast extent of their respective 
territories, and large amount of their respective populations : that 
such a union, against the consent of the exasperated Mexican 
people, could only be efiected and preserved by large standing 
aniiies, and the constant aj)[)lication of military force ; in other 
words, l>y despotic sway, exercis-jd over the i\Iexican jieople in. 
the first instance, but which there would be just cause to appre- 



RESOLUTIONS. G9 

hend. miglit in process of time be extended over the people of 
the United States. Tlint we deprecate, therefore, such a union, 
as wholly incompatible with the genius of our Government, and 
with tlie character of free and liberal institntions ; and we nux- 
iously hope tliat each nation may be left in the undisturlied 
possession of its own laws, langnage, cherished religion, and 
territory, to pursue its own happiness according to what it may 
deem best for itself. 

" 6. Resolved, Tliat considering the series of splendid and 
brilliant victories achieved by our brave armies and their gallant 
commanders, dining the war with Mexico, unattended by a 
single reverse, the Uiiiied States without any danger of their 
honor suffering the slightest tarnish, can practice the virtues of 
moderation and magnaiumity townrd their discomfited foe. We 
have no desire for the dismemberment by the United States of 
the republic of Mexico, but wish only a just and proper fixation 
of the limits of Texas. 

" 7. Bcsolved, That we do positively and emphatically dis- 
claim and disavow any wish or desire on our part, to acquire any 
foreign territory whatever, for the purpose of propagating slavery, 
or of introducing slaves from the United States, into such foreign 
territory. 

" 8. Resolved, That we invite our fellow-citizens of the 
United States, who are anxious for the restoration of the bless- 
ings of peace, or, if the existing war shall continue to be prose- 
cuted, are desirous that its purposes and objects shall be defined 
and known, Avho are anxious to avert present and future perils 
and dangers, with which it may be fraught, and who are also 
anxious to produce contentment and satisfaction at home, and to 
elevate the national character abroad, to assemble together in 
their respective communities and to express their views, feelings, ■ 
and opinions."' 

In the extracts from the speech above given, there are, as will 
be seen, only four points of the general argument discussed, 
which are, first, the question of annexing Mexico ; next, the 
impossibility of repairing, by direct means, great and compli- 
cated injustice that may have been perpetrated in the progress 
of human affairs, such as slavery ; third, the warning derived 
from history, of the doom of conquerors and conquering nations ; 
and fourth, the value of national reputation before the world. 
The reader must look to the resolutions submitted for all the 
points of argument considered by Mr. Clay on that occasion. 

The first resolution, as we need not say, is an impeachment 
of the President of the United States, Mr. Polk, for the manner 
ill which he precipitated the war, on his own responsibility, 



70 REMARKS. 

without authority of Congress, wliich is the only constitutional 
power competent to make war. It was evidently the purpose of 
the Constitution that the national Executive should never have 
it in his power to involve the nation in war. But we find, as in 
this case, and in a multitude of hypothetical cases of interna- 
tional diplomacy, that the national Executive can easily subvert 
the Constitution, and bring on inevitable war. War is generally, 
though not always, the result of diplomacy. It is so easy to 
make a casus belli in the temper and mode of diplomacy, that 
the power of making war vested by the Constitution in Con- 
gress alone, seems to be an entire failure. Scarcely any dispute 
arises between our government and that of any foreign nation, 
in which it is not in the power of our national Executive to 
commit the nation to a war, and he may be tempted to do so 
from personal and party motives ; such, for example, as his own 
election to a second or third term of office, and, it might be, for 
the perpetuation of his own power. Or it might result from the 
motives of diverting the public mind from a scrutiny of his own 
maladministration, by occupying it in foreign affairs, and in 
alleged grievances inflicted by a foreign power. We see by 
experience that cases are almost constantly occurring, in which 
the Federal Executive might involve the nation in war by dip- 
lomacy. •*. . 

President Polk, apparently, was determined to precipitate the 
war with Mexico, when, as commander-in-chief of the army, he 
ordered General Taylor to march from Corpus Christi to the Rio 
Grande ; and such was the immediate eflect. He then called 
on Congress to declare a war, which was in actual progress by 
his own sole instrumentality. He had foreseen that his own 
party in Congress and in tlie nation would sustain him ; but the 
fact is undeniable that lie himself, of his own will, commenced 
hostilities, by an order to the army, which involved the moral cer- 
tainty of actual hostilities ; and it was only by an eminent his- 
torical error incorporated in the declaration of war by Congress, 
to wit : that Mexico had commenced hostilities, that the trans- 
action was glossed over, and the President rescued from im- 
jx^achment before the Senate of the United States. In this 
way the war was began. It Avas a war made by the President 
of the United States, without authority of Congress, which de- 
monstrates a grave defect in the Federal Constitution, or in its 
practical operation. It was the intention of the Constitution 



REMARKS, 71 

that the President should never have it in his power to make 
war. But we see that he has this power, in more ways than 
one. Mr. Polk did it, in this instance, by an order from the 
War Department ; and the President of the United States can 
do it at any time, in the management of our foreign relations 
through the State Department. 

The second resolution discloses the singular fact that no ob- 
jects of the war were declared by Congress, and that its sole 
conduct was left with the President, for such objects as might 
suit himself, in the same manner as he commenced hostilities. 
Late in the day as it was to declare the objects of the war, 
when Mexico was subdued, and lay at our feet, the purpose of 
this resolution was to suggest the propriety and importance of 
such a declaration, that the nation and government might un- 
derstand their own aims, and pursue them, and that the Presi- 
dent should no longer be permitted to carry on the war at his 
own discretion, as he had begun and hitherto conducted it. 

The third and fourth resolutions were designed to show the 
constitutional ground on which the second was based, and to 
point out a constitutional course to check the arbitrary power of 
the President, and bring the war to a close. 

The fifth resolution rebukes the popular and ambitious design, 
at that moment rife with a considerable portion of the Ameri- 
can people, of annexing to the United States the whole of 
Mexico, and shows how disastrous such a consummation would 
prove to the people and government of the United States ; and 
we doubt not that the publication of this resolution, and the 
argument on that point, which we have given above, had great 
influence on the public mind and on the government, in deter- 
mining the terms of pacification finally adopted. 

The sixth resolution appeals to the nation for a magnanimous 
treatment of a discomfited foe. 

The seventh resolution is one of great significancy. In Mr. 
Clay's Raleigh Letter, on the proposed annexation of Texas, he 
said, in substance, that the object of extending the area of 
slavery was not to .be disguised. To this Mr. Clay was, to his 
death, openly opposed, and he evidently regarded the Mexican 
war as having that object, with those who had precipitated it so 
unnecessarily, wantonly, and unconstitutionally. It was for this 
reason, doubtless, that he made this seventh resolution so dis- 
tinct, pointed, and emphatic, in the repudiation of such a purpose. 



72 RESPONSE. 

The eighth and last rcsohition, calUng for an expression of 
public opinion throughout the land, on the subject of these reso- 
lutions, was instantly responded to by public and imposing 
assemblies of the peo|)le in numerous quarters. 

We will here cite only one of the numerous public declara- 
tions made, in answer to this call, by the American people, in 
the language of the address adopted at an immense meeting at 
the Tabernacle, New York, December 20th, 1847, only seven 
days after Mr. Clay's speech at Lexington — so quick did the 
pulse of the nation respond : 

"The spirit now dominant in the national councils, and 
rampant throughout the land, not only mocks at gray hairs and 
tranijtles on the lessons of experience, but regards with impa- 
tience and. ill-disguised contempt every appeal to considerations of 
morality, pliilanthropy, or reliiiion, in regard to the prosecution 
or termination of the war. The fierce bay of the bloodhound 
on the warm track of his prey drowns the calm voice of reason 
and the soft pleadings of humanity. Who that realizes the 
moral accountability of nations can doubt that we have fallen 
upon evil days ? 

•' In this crisis a voice from the west reaches the ear and fixes 
the regard of the American people. A veneral^le patriot, illustri- 
ous by forty years of eminent service in the national councils, 
emerges from his honored seclusion to address words of wise 
admonition to his fellow-citizens. That voice, which never 
counseled aught to dishonor or injure this Union, is lifted up, 
probably for the last time, in exposure of the specious pretexts 
on which this war was commenced, in reprehension of its char- 
acter and objects, and its remonstrance against its further prose- 
cution. At the sound of that impressive voice, the scales of de- 
lusion fall from thousands of flashing eyes, the false glitter of 
the conqueror's glory vanishes, revealing the hideous lineaments 
of carnage ; and the stern question which stung the first murderer 
is brought home essentially to every breast which enfolds a con- 
science : 'Where is thy brother?' To what end do vre despoil 
and slay oin- fellow-men guilty of being born two thousand 
miles south-west of us ? By what Divine law are we authorized 
thus to deface and destroy the image of God ? 

"The great statesman of the West was too well acquainted 
with human nature, and had too much experience of its worst 
developments, to hope that such an appeal as he has made to the 
nation's moral sense would not be resented and resisted. He 
knew that exposed depravity would pour out its vials of wrath 
on his devoted head ; that fell rapacity would neglect for a 
moment its prey to tear him with its fangs; and that malice 



AT NEW YORK, 73 

would stimulate calumny to hunt and defame him through the 
length and hrcadth of tl'ie land. Calmly he bared liis breast to 
the storm; unflinchingly he contemplates its fiercest rage, its 
most dismal bowlings.' Shielded in tlie panoply of an approving 
conscience, and of the commendation of the wise and good 
throughout the world, he . proffers no resistance, requires no 
sympathy, solicits no aid. For bimself he desires nctbing ; for 
his imperiled country he demands the services and the sacrifices 
of all lier upright and patriotic song. 

" And his appeal has not been fruitless. On every side the 
people, aroused as by a lrnmi)ei-l>last, are awaking to a con- 
sciousness of their duty. No longer sunk in apathy l)ecause 
they can perceive no mode in which exertion can avail, they 
realize at last that every honorable means should be employed to 
arrest the work of carnage ; and they feel that, in view of the 
brilliant achievements of our armies, and the utter prostration 
of their foes, the honor of our country can best be preserved and 
exalted by the exercise of magnanimity toward the vanquished. 
The means of terminating the war have been clearly pointed 
out by liim who is emphatically first in the affections and in the 
confidence of the American people, Henry Clay ; and it needs 
but that their representatives shall be faithful as hclias been 
fearless, to insure a speedy restoration of peace." 

At another meeting, subsequently held at Casde Garden, said 
to be the largest ever gathered in this country under one roof, 
, the following resolution was adopted : 

''Resolved, That we regard the late speech of Mr. Clay, at 
Lexington, in exposure of the causes, character and objects, of 
the prcsent war in Mexico, as among the noblest and most 
patriotic efforts of the great and true man, ' who would rather 
be right than be President.' " 

It is worthy of remark that Mr. Clay's Lexington speech on 
the Mexican war, was printed in New York in gold letters, and 
bound in elegant octavo, with blank interleaves, with a frontis- 
piece exhibiting a full length portrait of Mr. Clay, in tiie act of 
speaking, standing on a rock, with the American flag on his 
right, in the hand of a sailor ; an artisan on his left, in a listen- 
ing attitude, and surrounded with emblems of peace and war. 
It is still held by those who were so fortunate as to obtain copies 
of it, as a precious memento of the occasion. 

In the winter of 1847-8, Mr. Clay was found at Washington, 
on professional business, in the Supreme Court of the United 



74 MR. CLAY AND THE 

States, and was present, in January, at the annual meeting of the 
American Colonization Society, of which he was one of the 
founders, and had long been its President. It was equally as a 
matter of public policy, as of a liumane and Christian enterprise, 
that Mr. Clay was an original, and had continued a constant ad- 
vocate of tliis Society. As a statesman, he saw it must be for 
the good of the country ; and as a philanthropist, he adopted and 
espoused its cause, for the good of the African race. Time has 
contributed only to verify tlie correctness of his views, and to 
establish the validity of his opinion. For a long period, that So- 
ciety has had to encounter the opposition of narrow-minded and 
professed Christian philanthropists, who were incapable of esti- 
mating that vast circle and mighty career of Providence, which 
is preparing the way to redeem Africa from barbarism and pagan- 
ism, by the very wrongs which have been done to her sons in 
making them slaves on the American continent. This is not an 
age in which to vindicate the slave-trade, or to justify slavery. 
There is no need of argument on the subject. The only ques- 
tion is, as to the best, most wholesome, and most effective remedy 
for the mighty evils which the slave-trade and slavery have 
brought on human society. The one-idea remedy is, to break 
down society for the sake of breaking down slavery. There 
never was a reform, composed of one idea, which did not tend to 
mischief. Slavery in the United States is, in fact, an institution 
ramified in society, and so interwoven with its structure that an 
attempt to pluck it from the fabric by violence, if successful, 
would bring the whole fabric to the ground. But a Christian 
statesman, like Mr. Clay — for he always had. the views of a 
Christian on this, if not on all subjects-:-take? a wider view. 
In the first place, society must be maintained as '' the ordinance 
of God." Til the next place, the evils of society can only be 
eradicated by gradual reform. These are fundamental maxims 
with ihf Christian statesman. 

Here is the great fact of African slavery incorporated with 
American society; and here is a corresponding truth, that neither 
the inesent generation of Americans, nor the American govern- 
ment, is responsible for its introduction. Tiiey are only respons- 
ible for its treatment, and for its ultimate disjwsal. And here is 
another great fiict, that the African race has been greatly im- 
proved by their transfer to this continent, even in a condition of 
slavery. That is a providential result, and not an apology for 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 75 

slavery. No other race on earth has improved so much in an 
equal period. All this is providential, and can not be pleaded in 
mitigation of the crime of the slave-trade. But if, by this means, 
the race have been, and are being fitted, qualified, to return and 
redeem their fatherland, the continent of Africa, from barbarism 
and paganism, and from the slave traffic forever, it may well be 
looked upon as a part of that great circle of Providence which 
has ever been characterized as competent, and as being ordered, 
to bring good out of evil. This would seem to be the position 
which the American Colonization Society now occupies, as the 
instrument of Providence, in carrying back to Africa the descend- 
ants of her children, thus providentially qualified for the great 
design of repairing the wrongs done to her l)y ages and centuries 
of the slave-trade. When the.opposition to this Society, which 
has embarrassed its operations for many years, shall have died 
away — and it is rapidly subsiding now — there is much reascn to 
hope that the current of emigration from the United States to 
Liberia will be like the present movement of the population of 
Europe to America ; and there is good reason for believing that, 
from precisely the same motives, to wit, freedom and equality, 
the former movement may be equal to the latter. 

" Wby, gentlemen," said Mr. Clay, in his address as President 
of the Society, in January 1848, " if I am not mistaken, there 
comes yearly into the single port of New York, an immigration 
amounting almost [much more now] to the actual increase of the 
population in that city, and perhaps exceeding the annual in- 
crease of all the free people of color in tlie United States. And 
this is done voluntarily, upon the great motives of iiuinan action. 
Thus the German and Irish immigrate in flocks to our shores 
annually, with no considerable aid on the part of their govern- 
ments, and with no private aid, in numbers equal, perhaps, to 
the annual increase of all the Africans in the United States, bond 
and free. These all come to our country in obedience to one 
of tlie laws of our nature — in pursuance of the great controlling 
principle of human action, and whicli enters into all great enter- 
prises. They come here to better then- condition. And so it 
would be with all our free people of color. Were they to be 
transjiorted from the United Stales to Africa, would not their 
condition be physically, morally, socially, and politically better 
and happier than any thing which iliey could attain to or hope 
for heie? It is vain to attempt to eradicate the feeling which 



76 MR. CLAY AND THE 

keeps asunder these two races. It is vain for the office of ]ihi- 
losophy or humanity to attempt what is so utterly impracticable 
as joining together those whom God himself, by the ditference 
of color, and various other distinctions, has declared ought to be 
separate. Then, to send them to Africa, not by coercion, I)iit 
witli their own full consent, let me say to Abolitionists, and to 
those on tlie other extreme — to all men — why should not the free 
colored race, residing among us, have the option to go to Africa, 
or remain in the United States ?" 

Beyond question, African Colonization of free colored people 
of the United States is one of the great movements of the time 
— more properly, perhaps, the incipient stage of one of the grand 
movements of the future. The most ol)vions feature of the moral 
certainty of its success is the general sympathy of mankind in 
the fortunes of the African race. What but this feeling has 
madfe Uncle Tom's Cabin fall upon the bosom of the woild with 
such unexampled acceptance ? Throughout the Christian world, 
men will listen with eagerness to a reasonable, practicable pro- 
posal for the redemption of Africa ; and what other gleam of " 
light, what gleam so bright, tending thitherward, has ever 
dawned upon the world, as the erection and recognized inde- 
pendence of the Republic of Liberia? Those men in the 
United States, and in England too, who have stood in the way 
of this enterprise, who have checked for a while its onward 
career, by their unreasonable, wicked opposition, would have a 
feaiful account to render to the Great Arbiter of the cause of 
humanity, if, as a body, they could be arraigned in judgment 
before liis tribunal on this specification. They have put back 
the cause for an age, or for ages. But the true character of their 
opposition is now being exposed, and the Colonization movemqnt 
is beginning to feel the effect o( the candid judgment of man- 
kind. There is no other light for the African race, and like the 
morning sun in the East, with a splendor not less cheering, and 
with a march not less secure of coming to high noon, it may 
henceforth move on its way rejoicing. 

" I would now implore all parties," said Mr. Clay, in the con- 
clusion o[ his address on this occasion, " I would beseech the Abo- 
litionists, and I would beseech all those who hold the doctrines 
of tlic opposite extreme, insisting upon the institution of slavery 
— I would beseech all men to look calmly and dispassionately at 
this great project which commends itself to their friendly con- 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 77 

siderntion : I would beseech them to discard their prejudices, 
and ask tliem in the name of that God, under whose smiUng prov- 
idence I verily believe this society has thns far been conducted, 
and will in fntnre continue — to look and contemplate for a 
moment this experiment of twenty-five years' continuance, 
which, without power, without revenue, without any aid except 
what has been furnished by the charity of man, has carried on 
a war — not aggressive, but a defensive war — and transported to 
Africa between five and six thousand emigrants from the United 
States. I would ask you to look at the territory which we have 
acquired : three hundred and twenty [now five hundred] miles 
of coast on the west of Africa, and in every part of which the 
slave-trade has been suppressed." 

Mr. Clay showed clearly, as history abundantly attests, that 
the early settlements of the American colonies, now the United 
States, had even more difficulties to contend with. The ravages 
of disease at Jamestown, Va., on the first settlers, were greater 
than those which have been experienced at Liberia ; and the 
first struggles of the Plymouth colonists were only equaled by 
their virtue in sustaining them. And what have these settle- 
ments now come to ? Let the position which the United States 
of North America now occupy in the list of nations ; let the gran- 
deur of our institutions, our internal thrift, the magnitude and 
extent of our commerce, our cities, our States, our extended and 
vast domain, stretching from ocean to ocean, and from the frosty 
regions of the North to the torrid climes of the South, and our 
twenty-five millions of people, answer. Let our influence and 
power among the nations of the earth, answer. And who shall 
say that Africa, in two or three centuries to come, will not pre- 
sent to the world a picture like this, all in consequence of the 
enterprise of the American Colonization Society ? The original 
elements are the same in both cases, the motives of action are the 
same, and the favor of the world toward the African race is 
greater, far greater than that experienced by the first settlers of 
America. Long time has the story of Africa's wrongs been 
written on the heart of all Christendom, and never will the 
nations of Christendom cease to help on with Africa's redemption. 
There is no jealousy, never can be ; it is all sympathy. Tiie 
Africans are a different race from the Europeans and Anglo-Sax- 
ons. The two can never amalgamate together, and will never 
desire it. The white races being superior in all their develop)- 



78 COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 

ments, physical, moral, social, and political, hitherto, can never 
be jealous of Africans ; and the prevalence of Christian brother- 
hood, which characterizes the age, and which is growing on the 
world, will second all measures for the improvement and ad- 
vancement of the African race. 

" On, then, gentlemen," said Mr. Clay ; " go on, in the name 
of the cause. I sliall soon leave you and this theater of action 
forever. But I trust that the spirit which led to the formation 
of this Society, will survive me, and that, in other hands and 
under other auspices, this Colonization Society of ours may be 
still found asserting its sufficiency, in co-operation with the Re- 
public of Liberia, to transport to that region every free person of 
color who may be disposed to go there, until, 1 trust, the separa- 
tion of the two races shall be at last completed, and other gener- 
ations shall have sprung up to invoke — as in closing I now do — 
upon the noble cause of Colonization, the blessings of that God 
whose smile, I think, has been hitherto extended to it." 

And so the patriot bade farewell forever to the Society, over 
which he had so long presided with his accustomed dignity and 
grace, which was so long cherished by him, as one of the noblest 
philanthropic institutions of the age, not less promising in his es- 
teem of auspicious influence on the country than to the African 
race. That this Society should have had the favor of such a 
man as Mr. Clay at its organization, that it should have realized 
his constant aid and support in its whole career, and received 
his blessing as he was retiring from the scenes of public life and 
from the world, cannot fail to be regarded as evidences of no or- 
dinary character, of its high claims to the respect of mankind. 

This meeting of the Society was held in the hall of the House 
of Representatives, which was crowded to overflowing on the 
occasion, as it was known that Mr. Clay would preside, and de- 
liver an address, a few extracts from which are given above. 
He apologized for his want of preparation, as he had not been 
able to make a single note to guide him in his remarks. But on 
that tlicme, as on all others of a public nature, Mr. Clay was 
always at home, and semper parahfs. His memory was suffi- 
ciently weU stored with facts, his heart was in the cause, and 
his tongue was ever ready for the expression of his feelings. 
The impressioti made by his address was great, and will be en- 
during. 

Tlie next appearance of Mr. Clay at Washington, this winter, 



MR. CLAY IN THE SUPREME COURT. 79 

which attracted general attention, was in the Supreme Court, on 
the 11th of February, as one of the counsel in the case of Wil- 
liam Houston versus the City Bank of New Orleans. The Hon. 
John Sargent, of Philadelphia, was of the opposing counsel. The 
court-room was of course densely packed with a crowd of admir- 
ing auditors. "At an early hour," says a correspondent, "the 
avenues leading to the Capitol were thronged with crowds of the 
aged and young, the beautiful and gay, all anxious to hear — per- 
haps for the last time — the voice of the sage of Ashland. On no 
former occasion was the Supreme Court so densely packed — 
every inch of space was occupied, even to the lobbies leading to 
the Senate. Mr. Clay rose a few minutes after eleven o'clock, 
the hour at which tiie court is organized. It has been often 
said, and truly, that he never was and never could be reported 
successfully. His magic manner, the captivating tones of his 
voice, and a natural grace, singular in its influence and peculiarly 
his own, can never be transferred to paper. To realize their 
charms, he must be seen and heard." His exordium as he rose 
to address the court, has been represented as not less touching 
than beautiful. IVIi-. Clay's recollections and sentiments were 
always in harmony, and no man could better grace facts with 
touches of feeling. As tliis might be the last time he would 
ever appear in that place, what more natural than that he sliould 
make some allusion to the first ? Ho did so with great perti- 
nency and effect, and as he was a model of suavity and politeness, 
it was equally natural that he should pay a compliment to the 
court, which, indeed, in its moral influence, was not likely to 
injure his client ; though, far be it from us to suggest that the 
court could be unduly influenced. Not a face was on that bench 
which was to be seen in that place when Mr. Clay first had the 
honor of appearing as counsel there ; that was a monition of the 
chansing scenes of life. But the court had maintained its char- 
acter and dignity. That was a compliment. After a few such 
like historical allusions, and touches of sentiment, done in Mr. 
Clay's peculiar style of pertinency, grace, and dignity, to the 
edification of the court, as well as to the delight of his audience, 
he proceeded to open his case. His argument on this occasion 
was allowed to be as vigorous and as efl'ective as any he ever made. 
An incident in this case, and its story, are perhaps worthy of 
record. Mr. Sargent complained of haste in the counsel for the 
plaintiff, to which Mr. Clay replied : — 



80 MR. ADAJIS'S DEATH. 

'• I happened some years ago, in the performance of a public 
service, to he abroad in England, and I occasionally attended 
both Houses of Parhament and the courts of Westminster Hall. 
***** The speakers in Parliament would 
begin with their subject, and end when their subject was ex- 
hausted. In the courts of Westminster, I was impressed still more^ 
with the economy of the dispatch of business. * * * 
After the tipstali" had pronounced the introductory, 'God save, 
the King,' his lordship asked the oldest Sergeant, ' Have you 
any motion to make ?' ' Yes, please your lordship, I have a case 
in which I wish to establish this point,' naming it. 'You can not 
maintain that,' said his lordship. ' But,' said the Sergeant, ' I 
only wish to quote a few authorities.' ' It is of no use,' said his 
lordship, ' the proposition can not be maintained ;' and the same 
observation was echoed along the line of judges, and the case 
was dismissed in less time than it takes me to describe tlie in- 
cident." 

At the same time, Mr. Clay alluded to a '• certain tradition''^ 
regarding the length of a Philadelphia lawyers speech. Of 
course, this was all in the best of humor, and Mr. Sargent 
smiled, as well as the judges on the bench. The incident of a 
Sergeant in the English court, and the " tradition " about the 
long speeches of Philadelphia lawyers, were too tempting, the one 
for sound and the other for pertinency, not to be applied by IMr. 
Clay on such a provocation, to the great amusement of all present. 

Mr. Clay always delighted to sport in the sunny side of all 
thoughts, and to make all sides of ^bought suimy. " Madam," 
said Mr. Clay to Mrs. Polk, when dining one day this winter 
with the President, " I have never heard any body make the least 
complaint of yonr administration, though I have occasionally 
heard some complaint of your luisband's." 

On the 22d of February of this year (1848), the Hon. John 
Uuincy Adams, then in his eighty-first year, was stricken down 
by paralysis in his seat in the House of Representatives, and 
carried insensible to the Speaker's room, never more to return to 
his functions as a pul)lic man. It is somewhat remarkable that 
the day which brought so bright and glorious a star — sun, we 
might say — into the American firmament as George Washington, 
shoidd be the day of the setting glory of John Q,uincy Adams. 
It w ;is his desire, his fervent prajx'r, to die in the service of his 
country; and Iil- fell with his harness on. From the seat of 
earthly legislation, he was borne to an adjoining apartment of the 



MR. ADAMS AND Mli. CLAY. 81 

Capitol of the nation, there to linger on death's threshold a few 
hours, and then pass to the judgment-bar of the Maker of us all. 
His last words were, " This is the last of earth — I am content." 
Mr. Clay was then in Washington, and about to leave for the 
North, Though ]Mr. Adams lived but fifty hours after he was 
carried to the Speaker's room, he might continue many days, as 
then supposed. Mr. Clay, of course, could not depart without 
visiting the dying bed of his compatriot — his old associate in 
aflairs of state at home and abroad. Sitting by his side, Mr. 
Adams unconscious of his presence, Mr. Clay took his hand in one 
of his, covered his own face with the other, and gave vent, as he 
could not but do from the sympathies of his own nature, to the 
silent workings of his grief. Long had they toiled in the same 
field, in a common cause, for a common country ; and here they 
met, to part forever on this side the grave — already parted in- 
deed, for the dying man was not aware of the presence of his 
friend. Communion of thought and of sentiment was at an end. 
Mr. Clay wept. We know not his thoughts : they may in part 
be imagined by his momentary glance of the past in which they 
were both personally and so much concerned, and by his realiza- 
tion of the present. " This is the last of earth ;"' the last to him 
who lay there unconscious, though not the last to the other party, 
whom sturdy and unknown conflicts still awaited. Mr. Clay 
retired from the scene, without being able to say, other than in 
the silent language of his heart, " Adieu, my friend ! As thou 
hast said, to thee ' this is the last of earth .'' "' 

Regarding the subject entitled, "T/ie Great Conspiracy ^^^ in 
the first volume of this work, Mr. Adams, in a speech delivered 
at Maysville, Ky., 1843, said : ." As I expect shortly to appear 
before my God, to answer for the conduct of my whole life, 
should those charges have found their way to the throne of Eter- 
nal Justice, I will, in the presence of Omnipotence, pronounce 
them false." This, as will be seen, partakes of the nature of a 
solemn oath — the oath of a man of unquestioned conscientious- 
ness — made before the public on earth, and challenged to be 
recorded in heaven, to be reviewed and answered there, at the 
last great day. And such an oath may at least be regarded as 
'•the end of all strife." 

When the author of these pages returned from Kentucky, in 
the spring of 1845, after having spent the winter in connection 
with Mr. Clay, for the purpose of access to his papers, and to 

6 



82 MR. ADAMS AND MR. CLAY. 

obtain information from his own lips regarding his Hfe and 
times, he called on Mr. Adams, at his house in Washington, for 
information on certain points of history, which Mr. Adams could 
best give. Mr. A., aware of the purpose of the author, very 
frankly alluded to the controversy, once had between himself 
and Mr. Clay, regarding the transactions of the treaty of Ghent, 
and paused a little in the conversation, apparently to hear how 
the author proposed to treat that subject. It was known that 
the public, to some extent, had for a long time imagined that 
there was some unsettled difference between Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Adams, and that some revelations were yet to be made by one 
party or the other. The author, with the same frankness which 
characterized Mr. Adams's remarks, said to him, in substance, 
that in his frequent and numerous interviews with Mr. Clay dur- 
ing the winter, conversation, for the objects in view, necessarily 
included occasionally the fomier relations of Mr. Clay and ]\Ir. 
Adams : and that he, the author, had never heard Mr. Clay speak 
of Mr. Adtuns other than in terms of the most unqualified respect 
and friendship ; in short, except as instructed by the documents 
once made public, he (the author) never would have imagined 
there had been any difference between them. Mr. Adams was 
evidently gratified with this assurance, and took occasion to 
remark that, so far as he knew, there was not the slightest 
ground for the impression which some people had, that there 
was any thing new of an unpleasant kind l)ctween himself and 
Mr. Clay, to be disclosed. 

Thus we see how Mr. Clay, with all his characteristic sincerity 
and sympathy, and with feelings of the profoundest sorrow, 
could sit by the dying bed of Mr. Adams, take his hand, and 
weep over the fall of a great and good man, whose faults, if he 
had them, were not remembered : and whose virtues and pub- 
lic services were chronicled in ineffaceable characters on the 
tablet of Mv. Clay's heart. Mr. Clay was a true and Christian 
mourner over the grave of his friend. 

Mr. Clay, having professional engagements at Philadelphia, 
was forced to leave Washington, not knowing how soon he 
would hear of the death of Mr. Adams. There was no hope 
of his recovery, but the physician said he might live a week or 
more. But intelligence of his decease overtook Mr. Clay at 
Baltimore, and naturally spread a gloom over his mind in the 
midst of the acchiim with which he was received. One great 



MR. CLAY AT PHILADELPHIA. 83 

Statesman had just gone up for judgment to his God ; another 
stood before the people as arbiters of the destiny which yet 
awaited him on earth ; for Mr. Clay was still a candidate for the 
Presidency among those who were attached to Iiis person and 
to his principles. He had never solicited or declined the popular 
summons. As the time appointed, the 7th of May, for both of 
the great political parties of the country to make their nomina- 
tions to this high oflice, was near at hand, the feelings of the 
people had begun to kindle for the strife. Wherever Mr. Clay 
appeared, it was a signal for the uprising and outpouring of the 
people in favor of his election. Not even the pall of death 
which hung over the national Capitol could repress their ardor, 
and Mr. Clay was forced to present himself, on his arrival in 
Baltimore, at the window of his host, Mr. Christopher Hughes, 
formerly secretary of the American mission at Ghent. After an 
interchange of salutations, however, Mr. Clay retired, and left 
for Philadelphia the next morning. 

At a public reception of Mr. Clay, in Independence Hall at 
Philadelphia, he very pertinently said : "But for the loss which 
the country had just sustained in the decease of Mr. Adams, this 
would have been one of the happiest occasions of his life. As 
it was, the loss of the purest of patriots, and best of men, had 
caused a sensation of grief to pervade the whole country ; and 
how much greater than those of others, must be the feelings of 
one, who had been closely connected with him in both public 
and private life ; who had ever found him, at all times, and 
under all circumstances, the pure and elevated patriot, the tried, 
the faithful friend, the wise and good man. The loss was heavy 
to all ; but to none more so than to the speaker. His heart was 
so surcharged with emotions natural to such an event, that he 
must be excused from the formalities of a speech." 

It will be remembered that Mr. Clay declined an invitation to 
New York, brought to him at Cape May by a delegation from 
that city, in August of the preceding year. But a still more im- 
posing solicitation was conveyed to him at this time from the 
Mayor and Common Council of New York, to visit that city as 
their guest before his return to the West, which he could not 
well decline without disrespect to those who had done him this 
honor. He accordingly went to New York on the 7th of March, 
1848, accompanied by a committee from Philadcl[)hia as far as 
Amboy, where he was received by a committee from the New 



84 MR. clay's reception 

York Board of Aldermen, and landed at Castle Garden, amidst 
the enthusiastic cheers ot' the people, and formally welcomed by 
the Mayor, as tiie city's guest. The Mayor spoke as follows : — 

'• Mr. Clay: The pleasing duty has been assigned to me, as 
the representative of the constituted authorities of New York, to 
tender to you its hospitalities, and its cordial welcome. It is not 
necessary for me — indeed, sir, it would not become me — to 
advert to your many and valued public services. The whole 
country gratefully acknowledges, the zeal, the devotion, with 
which a whole life has been pa-ssed in upholding her interests, in 
defending her honor, in augmenting her prosperity : and we, sir, 
citizens of the great commercial metropolis of this Western world, 
rejoice that we are permitted to testify to you personally our 
appreciation of the worth, the talents, the statesmanship, and the 
pure patriotism, which have combined to suiTOund, with a halo 
of imperishable glory, the name of Henry Clay. * * We 
receive you, sir, as the honored, the cherished guest of this great 
city." 

To which Mr. Clay replied : — 

" Mr. Mayor: I wish I cojild find adequate language to ex- 
press to you and to this audience, the feelings of a grateful heart, 
excited by this splendid and magnificent reception. * * * 
My arrival here to-day has been signalized by the discharge of 
cannon, by the display of flags, by the sound of gay and exulting 
music, by the shouts and cheers of an aliectionate multitude, 
directed toward myself. I am proud and thankful for these 
evidences of regard and of appreciation, for the humble services 
of an individual whom you esteem far too highly. But, sir, these 
testimonies offered to the living could not fail to remind me of 
the just honors about to be paid to the dead. To-morrow's sun 
will rise upon another and a different spectacle than that which 
it to-day beholds, as the venerable remains of the illustrious ex- 
President of the United Slates reach this city. Then, instead 
of the cheers of joy and gladness which have been uttered upon 
this occasion, there'wiU be the still expression of solemn and of 
saddened feeling. As I contemplate the scene which will be 
presented on that anticipated arrival, as I recollect the signal 
services and glorious career of the great departed, and tlie sphere 
to which he now has passed — a state of being that awaits us all, 
— I am moved to suppress the feelings of grateful joy, which 
would otherwise overtiow within me, on an occasion so honora- 
ble to mysell". Ought not the contrast between this day's dem- 
onstrations, on the arrival of an liuml)le individual, wliosc efforts 
m his country's service you much too highly appreciate, and the 



AT NEW YORK. 85 

ceremonies which will follow to-morrow, to make a deep impres- 
sion on our minds? Ought tlicy not, for the few days remain- 
ins^ to ns, to moderate the unworthy impulses which most men 
bring into the strifes of our existence here — to rejiress and chasten 
the violence of party contests, and the heat and acrimony of 
party feeling, for the brief space which intervenes between the 
present moment and that near at hand, when we shall all be laid 
low in the narrow house which our venerable and pure-hearted 
patriot now occupies? * * * And now, sir, will you permit 
me to thank yourself and the public authorities of the people of 
this city, for this splendid reception, and for the kindness and 
liberal hospitality which you have authorized me to expect at 
your hands." 

After the reception, a civic procession was formed, and moved 
up Broadway, amid the cheers of the tens of thousands crowd- 
ing the streets and filling the windows and every place of observ- 
ation. On the following day, as de|)icted in Mr. Clay's speech 
above, the mortal remains of Mr. Adams were received at the 
same place, and borne along the same way, to their final resting- 
place, in Quincy, Massachusetts. Thus succeed each other the 
joyful and the sad, the exultations and funereal signs of man's 
earthly career. One is honored in his chariot of victory, another 
in his coffin. 

The chastened feelings of Mr. Clay, as evinced in his speeches, 
both at Philadelphia and New York, extracts and abbreviations 
of which are given above, expecting, as he did. to be followed 
so soon by the remains of his ancient friend and fellow-laborer 
in the field of public service, are honorable to his heart, and 
demonstrate that, while he was not ungrateful for the pageants 
enacted in compliment to himself, he was yet more impressed 
with those impending pageants which signalize the triumphs of 
the King of Terrors. "While his steps were seemingly tottering 
on the brink of Death's domain, himself followed and cheered 
by the acclamations of the multitude, he was bending over and 
looking into that world which, he was quite aware, so nearly 
awaited himself. Always infiuenced more or less by religious 
sentiment, he now felt and acted as a Christian man. He had 
publicly honored the Saviour of mankind, by bowing his head 
to the baptism of the Cross, and by subscribing his name as a 
member of that family whose inheritance comes in reversion, 
after the battles of life are ended. 

The solemnities of Mr. Adams's funeral at New York being 



86 REMARKS. 

over, and his remains borne onward to the tomb of his father, 
built and inscribed by his own hands, Mr. Clay received the 
honors of the city, in various forms, from day to day, by being 
presented to the citizens at the City Hall — or rather by shaking 
hands with them, for he was too well known to require being 
presented ; by being accompanied to some of the various and 
most eminent public institutions, and attractive objects-and im- 
provements of this proud and ever- expanding and rising metrop- 
olis. It was his last social entertainment here. The next time 
he visited New York, and the last in which public honors could 
be rendered to him present, he lay still and unconscious in the 
arms of death, and was borne along, like his predecessor, Mr 
Adams, to his final home. Sic transit gloria mundi. 

But, in this stage of our history, Mr. Clay is still a living, sen- 
tient, active being ; still the idol of his countrymen ; still looked 
up to as a candidate for public trust and honors, though about to 
step into his seventj^-second year, on the twelfth day of the 
next succeeding month ; himself, in some measure, tottering on 
the brink of the grave. But he was a man of iron, still walking 
erect, evincing all his wonted powers of intellect and correctness 
of judgment, and as well qualified as ever for public aflairs. 
The wisdom and maturity of his experience were, perhaps, even 
more reliable than in former years. 

Such a man, so long tried, so true, so faithful to his country, 
and so well versed in its affairs ; a man Avho, by the very open- 
ness and trustfulness of his nature, had suffered one of the great- 
est wrongs recorded in history, as developed in the fourteentii 
chapter of the first volume of this work, stamping with eternal 
infamy the conspirators in that transaction ; a man who had been 
three times* before the })eople as nominee for the Presidency, 
abused and hunted down by calumny to his defeat ; who should 
have been nominated in IS 10, and, as no one doubts, would 
necessarily have been elected by a like overwhelming majority, 
as that which then carried in the Whig nominee so triumph- 
anlly (lor the country was prepared for it, and great is the re- 
sponsibility of those who stood in the way of that nomination); 
wlio faik^d of his election in 1844, only by that unfairness which 

\ * Tho scrub-race of',1826 is not worthy of mention in tbis list of three times; and 

in the campaign of 1832, tlie anti-Jackson strength was divided by anti-masonry, a 
numerous party at that time ; so that Mr. Clay was never fairly before the people 
till 18'14 ; when, as shown elsewhere, he was beaten by fraud. 



REMARKS. 87 

ever characterized his opponents, as shown in the eighteenth 
chapter of the second volume ; and who, in 1848, was still 
stronger in public favor than ever before. The enthusiasm of 
the Irish population of the country in his behalf, for his speech 
at New Orleans, that proved so effective for the relief of their 
famishing brethren at home, as certified by a correspondence 
heretofore cited, was alone sufficient to have turned the scale 
for Mr. Clay's triumphant election in 1848. That, like all 
of Mr. Clay's strongholds on the affections of the American 
people, was a legitimate advantage. It was purchased by plead- 
ing the cause of humanity ; and human nature never fails to 
respond generously to such efforts. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 

History of the Apostasy of the Whig Party from "Whig Principles. — The Injustice 
to Mr. Chiy in the Noniiiiation of General Harrison and of General Taylor. — 
Mr. Clay a sacrificial Victim.— Tlie overthrow of the Whig Party. — Mr. Clay's 
spotless Reputation and Fame. 

That a party of principle, which had so long follov/ed in the 
wake of Mr. Clay's advocacy of principle, should have been 
shaken in its columns, and wavered, and been so far broken, in 
1840, as to desert their great chieftain, and fall back on the 
Jackson principle of belief in military fame, without having a 
Jackson to lead, was a strong symptom of the future discomfit- 
ures that awaited them. For they seem to have hoped that 
General Harrison, with his military feather, wonld supply his 
lack of Mr. Clay's character as a statesman. For it is no dispar- 
agement to General Harrison to say that the distance between 
him and Mr. Clay, in this particular, was immense. And yet the 
Whig party preferred General Harrison to Mr. Clay ! And they 
made this choice at the time when they were most secure of ^Mr. 
Clay, if they had put him in nomination, and when they most 
needed him. As if Providence must ever frown on the want of 
fidelity to principle. General Harrison died in thirty days after 
his inauguration, and Mr. Tyler, who, by the Constitution, suc- 
ceeded to the functions of President, betrayed the party, and it 
was disorganized, so far as not to be able to carry out its policy 
or maintain its ground against a hostile Executive. With broken 
columns, still recognizing Mr. Clay as a leader, it hobbled on 
through two administrations, to make another great trial of 
strength in 1848, with the party of no luinciple — or which at 
the beginning had no principle ; but which, by this time, how- 
ever, was able to construct a Baltimore platform. 



FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 89 

Another military feather was waving in the eye of the Whig 
party in 1818. It was won at the hattles of Palo Alto and Re- 
saca de la Palma, at the siege and capture of Montcry, and at 
Buena Vista. It was hard to shatter the great principles of the 
Whig party. But there were those in it who had grown gray in 
waiting for office under the banner of Mr. Clay, and whose 
memories were refreshed with what was effected by the eclat of 
military glory under General Jr.ckson. It was hard, and might 
seem ungrateful, to abandon a great and long-tried leader. But 
the military feather waved before their eyes, and they were 
tempted. They did not know what correspondence had taken 
place between Mr. Clay and General Taylor ; if they had known 
it, perhaps they would have acted differently ; and Mr. Clay was 
too noble to tell them. 

It needed a leader, or a few leaders to give the signal of defec- 
tion ; and they were not wanting. One after another of the great 
names of the party fell off from Mr. Clay and inclined to Gen- 
eral Taylor ; and when the national Whig Convention met at 
Philadelphia, in June, 1848, to nominate a candidate for the 
Presidency, the first ballot showed that seven out of twelve of 
"^ the Kentucky delegation, against the expectations and wishes of 
their constituency, had deserted Mr. Clay, and gone over to Gen- 
eral Taylor. The influence of this fact was great — perhaps de- 
cisive. For if Mr. Clay's own State was against him, what 
could be expected of the other States? On the fourth ballot 
General Taylor had fifty-two majority, and was declared the 
nominee. 

The following are the four ballots for the different candidates, 
with the result : 



First Ballot— Tiiylov, 111— Clay, 97— Scott, 43— Webster, 22— Clayton, 4— 
M'Lean, 2. Total, 279. IS'o choice. 

Second Ballot.— Tixylor, 118— Clay, 86— Scott, 49— Webster, 22— Clayton, 4— 
No choice again. Adjourned to next morning. 

Third Ballot.— Taylor, 133— Clay, 74— Scott, 54— Webster, 17— Clayton, 1. 

Fourth Ballot.— T&jloT, 171- Clay, 32— Scott, 63— Webster, 14. Taylor over 
all, 52. 

In November following, General Taylor was elected President 
of the United States, and Millard Fillmore Vice-President. As 
in the case of General Harrison, who died in thirty days after 



90 FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 

his inauguration, so in the case of General Taylor, another re- 
buke of Providence came upon the Whig party ; and he, too, 
died in sixteen months after he had entered on the duties 
of his office. Mr. Fillmore's discharge of the Executive func- 
tions was always unexceptionable ; but the Wiiig party was dis- 
organized. They had not only deserted their great leader, who 
had stood by them under every cloud, and in every instance of 
adversity, but they had deserted their principles — net entirely, 
nor even nominally — but they had been tempted by military re- 
nown, and adopted it as a leading principle. From that moment 
they fell from a lofty height to the level of their opponents at 
the beginning of their career, and by this time, 1856, they are 
utterly disbanded. Their very name is extinct, and there is no 
such party. Mr. Clay foresaw it, feared it, and predicted it, as 
we shall see. 

Mr. Clay nobly supported General Harrison when he was 
nominated, although he could not but be sensible of the ingrati- 
tude of the Whig party in suqh a preference. But when 
General Taylor was nominated, Mr. Clay was silent. He was 
earnestly solicited to come out in favor of General Taylor. He 
was still silent. There was a secret, known to himself, but con- 
cealed from the public. That secret is now revealed in General 
Taylor's letter of April 30, 1S48, to Mr. Clay ;* and in Mr. 
Clay's letter, June 26, 1848, f to the Committee of Louisville. 
General Taylor, in the letter above referred to, says : 

" I conceive I am ])laced in ratlicr a peculiar situation as re- 
gards my being a candidate for the Presidency. * * * i 
received the proceedings of the people, called together in 
primary assemblies in several of the States, nominating me as 
candidate for the Presidency at the next election, * * * and 
urging me to continue as a candidate, under all circumstances, 
on the grounds I had taken, which was not to be the exclusive 
candidate of any party; and, on reaching New Orleans, many 
friends called on me to let it be publicly aimonnced, that my 
name, as a candidate for tiie othce in question, would not be 
wiilidrawn, let who would be in the field, whicii I consented 
to, and advised my friends in Washington of my change in that 
respect, without delay. I therefore now conceive myself in the 
hands of tlie people, for the highest office in their gift.'" 

Mr. Clay, iji iiis letter to tiie Louisville Committee, says : 
• Page 557, Private Correspondence. f Page 56G, Ibid. 



FALL OF THE "WHIG PARTY. 



91 



<'Ihave been much importuned from various quarters to en- 
dorse General Taylor as a £?ood Whis, wlio will, if elected, act 
on Whi;^ principles, and carry out Whig measures. But how can 
I do that ? Can I say that in his hands Whig measures will be 
safe and secure, when he refuses to pledge himself to their sup- 
port ? when some of his most active friends say they are obso- 
lete? when he is presented as a No-party candidate ? when the 
Whig Convention at Philadelphia refused to recognize or pro- 
claim Its attachment to any principles or measures, and actually 
laid on the table resolutions havinii that object in view? 

" Ought I to come out as a warm and partisan supporter of a 
candidate, who, in a reversal of our conditions, announced his 
purpose to remain as a candidate, and consequently to oppose 
me, so far as it depended upon himself? Tell me what reci- 
procity is in this ? Magnanimity is a noble virtue, and I have 
always endeavored to practice it; but it has its limits, and the 
line of demarcation between it and meanness is not always clearly 
discernible. I have been reminded of the course I pursued in 
the case of the nomination of General Harrison, in 1839. But 
General Harrison was not merely a Whig in name ; he was 
committed and pledged to the support of the measures of the 
Whigs. He did not declare that he would stand as a candidate 
in opposition to the nominee of the Convention. He was, 
moreover, a civilian of varied and extensive experience. 

" I lost the nomination, as I firmly believe, by the conduct of 
^ the majorities of the delegations from Kentucky in Congress and 
in the Convention, and I am called upon to ratify what they did, 
in contravention, as I also believe, of the wishes of a large ma- 
jority of the people of Kentucky ! I am asked to sanction and 
approve the course of the seven delegates from Kentucky, who, 
in violation of the desire of their constituents, voted against me, 
and virtually to censure and condemn the five who voted for 



me." 



In a letter to James Harlan, Esq., August 5, 1848,* Mr. Clay 
says: 

" It is mortifying to behold that once great party [the Whig 
party] descending from its lofty position of principle, known, 
avowed, and proclaimed principle, and lending itself to the crea- 
tion of a mere personal party, with a virtual abandonment of its 
old principles." 

Also, in a letter to Henry White, Esq., September 10, 1848,t 
Mr. Clay says : 

* Page 571, Private Correspondouce. + Page 573, Private Correspondence. 



92 FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 

" Althoiish I believe that the Philadelphia Convention has 
placed the Whicr party in a humiliating condition — one which, I 
fear, will impair its iiseAilness, if not destroy its existence — I 
acquiesced in its decision in not nominating me, and have submit- 
ted quietly to it. I have done nothing to oppose its nomination. I 
have given no countenance to any movements having for this 
object any further use of my name, in connection with tlie 
ofiice of President. Beyond this I can not go. Self-respect and 
consistency, with deliljerate opinions long since formed, against 
the elevation to that office of a mere military man, must restrain 
me from taking any active part in the canvass." 

During the pendency of the Presidential canvass of 1848, it 
was not known to the public that General Taylor had written to 
Mr. Clay to say, " let who will be in the field," I shall be there ; 
and that he had consented to be a candidate, whoever might be 
nominated by the Convention, even against Mr. Clay. It is true, 
General Taylor had graciously said to l\Ir. Clay, in this letter, 
'' Should you receive the nomination of the Whig National 
Convention, which is to meet in Philadelphia in June, and be 
elected in November [against me], but few of your friends will 
be more gratified than myself. And should you be unsuccessful, 
and should it be thought your being a candidate had the eflect 
of prev^enting my election, it will not produce the slightest feel- 
ing of unkindness [in me] toward you." But the General in- 
tended to run, " let who would be in the field." 

If Mr. Clay had not had too much magnanimity to make this 
annoinicement himself puiilic, before the meeting of the Conven- 
tion at Pliiladelphia tock place, as most persons in the same cir- 
cumstances would have done, there is no doubt who would have 
been the nominee. With such a disclosure, General Taylors 
name would not have been admitted into the Convention. Or if 
the secret had come out timing the canvass, it would have pre- 
vented the election cf the NVliig nominee. Mr. Clay was obliged 
to disclose it in confidence to the Louisville Committee, in self 
vindication. But he knew very well that they would not commit 
such a suicidal act on the party;, in whose beiialf they had written 
to him, as to publish it ; and it never was published, till it ap- 
peared in " the Private Correspondence of Henry Clay,"' three 
years after Mr. Clay's death, when the truth and full exposition 
of history demanded its publication. Mr. Clay's silence and mag- 
nanimity in this matter, while Ik- himself was sulfering griev- 
ously, on accoiiiii of this silence, under the reproaches of his 



FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 93 

former friends, are only characteristic of himself He was not 
only rejected in the Convention, bnt he was abused for not loan- 
ing his sanction to their actions, and for not taking the stump in 
behalf of their nominee. He might well say, as in his letter to 
the Committee, " What reciprocity is there in this? Magnanim- 
ity is a noble virtue, and I have always endeavored to practice 
it ; but it has its limits, and the line of demarcation between it 
and meanness is not always clearly discernible." 

If Mr. Clay had let out this secret before the meeting of the 
Convention — as he was justly entitled to do, and as almost any 
other man would have done, in the same circumstances — he 
would have been the nominee, and there would have been three 
candidates in the field, Mr. Clay, General Taylor, and General 
Cass, neither of whom would, in any probability, have obtained 
a majority of the popular vote, and consequently the election of 
President would have been transferred to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where Mr. Clay's strength would doubtless have been 
greater than that of General Taylor, and the election would 
have fallen on Mr. Clay or General Cass. For it is not to be 
supposed that General Taylor, under these disclosures, and after 
time for consideration, would have occupied such ground, and 
had such chances in the House of Representatives, as he oc- 
cupied and had before the people, when these facts were un- 
known, and when Mr. Clay was not in the field. Besides, the 
House of Representatives would have seen the difference in the 
qualifications of the two candidates for the office of President, 
and the utter absurdity of giving the preference to a mere military 
man when such a statesman as Mr. Clay was before them as 
an alternative choice. It is also to be considered that it was the 
simplest and easiest thing in the world for Mr. Clay, during the 
canvass, with such a power in his hands, to have thrust General 
Taylor into the background, and to have defeated his election. 
But he had never done, and would not now do any thing, which 
a malicious opponent could pervert, and turn to an impeachment 
of that elevated, and self-sacrificing, disinterested character, which 
he had so dearly won, in his long protracted career. And again 
he bowed his head as a sacrificial victim on the altar of his 
country. 

So late in the canvass as about the first of September, General 
Taylor accepted a nomination made at Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, on a ticket with General Butler for Vice-President, who was 



94 FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY, 

the regular nominee on the ticket of General Cass. This startled 
a portion of the Whig party, as well it might, and a movement 
was instantly made at Albany and New York, to put forward Air. 
Clay, and it would have been done throughout the Union, if Mr. 
Clay had not, with equal promptitude, put his veto upon it, and 
arrested it. 

It seems never to have been considered in the Convention 
which nominated General Harrison, or in that which nominated 
General Taylor, that for the strength of the party which secured 
success in both these cases, the Whigs were indebted, not ex- 
clusively, perhaps, but very largely, to IVIr. Clay. Who will deny 
his leadership during the whole history of the party ? Mr. Clay 
was the embodiment of Whig principles, and no other man Avas 
so much so. In his action as a statesman, he developed those 
principles, and gave them form and power. It was this develop- 
ment which brought about the unparalleled victory of 1840 ; and 
yet the Wliigs chose another leader ! It was the same influence 
— enfeebled it is true, by the abuse of it on the part of the 
•Whi-^s — which achieved the Whig victory, so called, of 1S4S. 
But, by this time, it was greatly degenerated, by liaving lallen 
from the hands and control of Mr. Clay, and it was destined, for 
the same reason, to inevitable defeat. 

But while the Whig party adhered to Mr. Clay, even pro- 
fessedly, he was the strength of the party. It is, therefore, one 
of the strangest anomalies in the history of a political party, that 
the very man in wiiom their chief strength resided, should be 
rejected not once, but twice, at the very moment when they 
wanted such an Executive chief to conduct the aftairs of the 
nation ! and when, too, no other man was so strong before the 
people ! For how could the two things be separated — the 
strength of Mr. Clay as the leader of the party, and his strength 
as a candidate for the Presidency ? It is absurd to suppose tliat 
the two things were not identical. And yet Mr. Clay was set 
aside, in botli these instances, for men who could bear no com- 
parison with him, in experience as statesmen, or in talent, or in 
executive ability. The one was ridiculed by the opposite party 
for his pretensions, and was carried into the Presidency on the 
shoulders of Mr. Clay, or which is the same thing, by the 
strength which Mr. Clay had given to the party ; and the otlior 
had spent his life as a soldier, on the borders of the country, 
watching the Indians, until he suddenly acquired a military fame 



FALL OF THE WHIG PARTY. 95 

in the Mexican war, to which he was justly entitled ; or, as Mr. 
Clay says, in a letter to James Lynch and others,* " Exclusively 
a military man, without the least experience in civil affairs, bred 
up and always living in the camp, with his sword by his side and 
his epaulets on his shoulders, it is proposed to transfer him from 
the second in command of the army, to the chief magistracy of 
this great model republic !" 

This was the consummation of apostasy from the principles 
of the party, so long advocated and made prominent and influ- 
ential by the statesmanship, tact, and eloquence of Mr. Clay ; and 
it was no longer the Whig party of the country. From that 
hour its disorganization was rapid, and it only required a little 
space to come to its final agony. It is now dead. It might 
have fallen nobly in the field of combat, if it must fall. But 
there was no need that it should ever fall. If the Whig party 
had put forward Mr. Clay for the Presidency in 1840, as they 
were bound in honor and fidelity to their principles to do, they 
would have ruled the country for all time. We mean only that 
their policy would have been established on a basis that would 
never be shaken. 

It is a very remarkable historical coincidence that the duration 
of the Jackson party, as such, after it started on the military 
principle, or in reliance on the military fame of their chief, was 
about ten years. For that principle had lost its power, and the 
Jackson dynasty was overthrown in 1840. The Whig party 
resorted to the same principle in 1840, acted it out more fully in 
1848, and by the time ten years had elapsed after this apostasy, 
their doom as a party was sealed. So far as this remarkable his- 
torical coincidence goes to establish a proposition, it may be 
assumed that the military principle, acting in such a form on a 
political party, in this country, is available for a cycle of about 
half a score of years. It is to be hoped it may never last long 
enough to subject the country to military rule — an apprehension 
so often expressed by Mr. Clay, since it first showed itself under 
General Jackson. 

When the Jackson dynasty had fairly spent itself, the Demo- 
cratic party took np a position on a platform of principles which 
had gradually come to their hands, vitiated indeed by the virus 
of the former regime. While the Whig party, in 1848, had so 
far degenerated as to decline publishing a platform of principles, 
* Page 576, Private Correspondence. 



06 MR, clay's character. 

and had fallen back on the principle of the Jackson dynasty, 
the Democratic party were loudly uttering their principles, so 
that the two great national parties had completely reversed their 
relative positions, the Whigs having returned to the point Avhere 
the Jackson party began, which the Democrats, with wisdom, 
had allowed to fall into the condition of a non-user. 

The contingent results to the country, of nominating and 
electing Mr. Clay in 1840 — and he certainly would have been 
elected if nominated — are almost inconceivable, certainly inesti- 
mable and immeasurable. The fate of the country, whether it 
should rise to the highest degree of prosperity, greatness and 
power, or be rent by the introduction of the elements of discord, 
the Union shaken to its foundations, and ultimately broken into 
fragments, may have depended, and in the apprehensions of the 
most sagacious minds, did depend, on that contingency. How 
great, then, the responsibility of those who defeated the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Clay in 1840 ! In 1840 was the beginning of the 
fall of the Whig party by the rejection of Mr. Clay ; and in 
1848, when the only and last chance of saving the party pre- 
sented itself, it found a consummation of its destiny — all, we 
think, for abandoning Mr. Clay. Principles are the germs of all 
the fruit of human society, good or bad ; and to abandon good 
principles, is to come to a bad end, in the case of individuals, of 
political parties, and of nations. Mr. Clay was consistent in his 
principles to the end of his days ; but his party abandoned him, 
and it was ruined. It was the inevitable destiny of the course 
which they pursued. 

But though Mr. Clay did not reach the Presidency, he attained 
a higher place — a nirhe in ever-during fame, as one of the great- 
est and purest of statesmen, as an orator unrivaled in his time for 
the effect of his eloquence, as a good citizen, as a kind father and 
exemplary husband, as a counselor and advocate in civil and 
criminal law of rare endowments, and as having succeeded, by 
his character and career, in gaining the love and devotion of the 
American people, as no American before him, or of his time, had 
ever done. He was a man open to the nearest access, and sus- 
ceptible of the most intimate friendships. He was a man to be 
loved by all, because he was accessible to all. He was a man of 
the people and/o;- the people. All manner of intercourse with 
him, whether personal, or by the mediate communication of his 
thoughts and sentiments, established at once a common ground 



MR. clay's character. • 97 

of sympathy. The humblest individuals in society felt his 
power, because it was natural and pertinent ; and the highest 
felt it, because it was still a gracious condescension, which re- 
lieved them from all embarrassment. To the prince he could 
speak as a prince, and to the plowman as one of his own sort. 
It was this magic power over men of all conditions, which made 
him so immensely popular. It was this high place in the affec- 
tions of men, won by his suavity, and by the versatility and 
adaptations of his genius, which made his sway more potent 
than that of magisterial power, and his social position more 
enviable than that of the chief executive of a nation. Power 
could never add to the splendors of his reputation, or make the 
world admire him one whit the more. He lives, and Avill for- 
ever live, in the heart of the nation he so long and so faithfully 
served, while some of those who have filled the chair of State, 
will be forgotten, and while none of them will be spoken of 
simply for that accidental elevation. Durable fame is that 
which builds itself up by promoting the common weal of 
human society, and in securing the affections of those who 
have been benefited. 

It may, perhaps, be said that the Whig party tried Mr. Clay 
in 1844, and he was defeated. Say, rather, the Whig party was 
defeated. So rapid had been the disorganization of the party, 
and so disastrous its history, after its abandonment of Mr. Clay 
in 1840, that the party could do nothing else in 1844 but in- 
voke his name and strength ; and all living men in the country, 
of that memorable year, will forever remember, and history will 
record the enthusiasm and hopes with which his nomination 
was received and sustained. And by a fair election, and by a 
fair counting of votes, as we have elsewhere shown, Mr. Clay 
would have been declared President. What other man, after 
such disasters as the Whig party had experienced by rejecting 
Mr. Clay in 1840, could have mustered the party again in 1844 ? 
The nation figain began to feel that the Whig party was still a 
party of principle. But alas ! in 1848, they ignored all princi- 
ple but the military fame of their nominee ; and " they who sowed 
the wind, reaped the whirlwind." As a party, they are swept 
from the face of the earth. 

It is interesting, and not less instructive, to observe the con- 
trast between Mr. Clay's lofty position when the Whig party had 
abandoned him, and the downward career of that party from 



98 • MR. clay's character. 

that moment. While Mr. Clay was at the head of it, it was 
known and respected as a party of principle, and because it was 
a party of principle. But the moment it went off from him in 
1848, and in llio very act of going off, it laid on the table a 
proposed platform of principles, and mounted the military horse 
like the Jackson party of 1828 and 1832. " It is mortifying," 
says Mr. Clay as above cited,*^- •' to behold that once great party 
descending from its lofty position of principle — known, avowed, 
and proclaimed principle — and lending itself to the creation of 
a mere personal party, with a virtual abandonment of its old 
principles." Again, in his letter to Henry White,! he says, 
" The Philadelphia Convention has placed the Whig party in a 
humiliating condition — one which, I fear, will impair its 
usefulness, if not destroy its existence.^^ Can any one con- 
ceive a more perfect transformation of character than was made 
in this great party at this time, by sundry of its ambitious 
leaders, who were tired of waiting for Mr. Clay ; that is, tired 
of waiting on principle, to which, in all the former parts of their 
history, Mr. Clay's leadership had ever trained and held them 
fast ; but who now broke loose from his guidance, and made 
one fearful plunge, dragging the party with them into a head- 
long career, Mnthout a single principle to guide them, except a 
military feather that waved in the breeze before their vision ! 
A party which had been born and rocked in the cradle of oppo- 
sition to this principle twenty years before, which grew up to 
manhood and strength under the nurturing hand of Mr. Clay, 
and which, under iiis banner, was prepared for a glorious tri- 
umph in 1840, now, in 1848, turned away from the beckoning 
hand and warning voice of their great Captain, and bowed 
themselves down in adoration of that very principle which, from 
their infancy as a party, their political catechism had taught 
them to denoimce as fraught with danger to the interests of the 
country ! And yet they made the plunge, and history has al- 
ready declared the result. They are no more ! 

But ill tho fall of his party, there stood Mr. Clay erect, with 
eagle eye fastened on the principles he had so long cherished 
and taught, and looking down in sorrow on the great political 
family he had taken so much pains to rear. A chieftain still, of 
the same lofty bearing, even in the hoiu- of his desertion by false 
friends, still commanding and receiving the homage of all — and 

* Page 071, I'rivato Correspondencr. f Page 573, ibid. 



MR. clay's character. 99 

they were a moiety of a great nation — who had been accustomed 
to admire and love him, and who were still, to the very last, 
faithful to him, he occupied even higher ground, certainly more 
hallowed, than to have been borne into the Presidency by the 
shouts of a victorious party. While an impartial world turns 
away with disgust, if not with a shudder, from such defection 
as Mr. Clay experienced in this trying hour, it will render invol- 
untary homage to that fidelity to principle which beams so efful- 
gently from Mr, Clay's character to his last hour as a public 
man, and as a private individual. It will ever be said of him, 
That was the man who could never be swerved from his con- 
victions of right. 



CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Clay again in the Senate of the United States. — What the Senate may do 
while waiting for the Organization of the House. — Are you Married or Single? 
— Mr. Clay's Plea to admit Father Matthew on the floor. — A tie Yote for Chap- 
lain. — Pleasantry and Sarcasm of Mr. Clay. — Mr. Clay on Mr. Cass's Resolution 
to suspend Diplomatic Intercourse with Austria. — Mr. Clay on the Purchase of 
the Manuscript Copy of Washington's Farewell Address. — On the Purchase of 
Mount Vernon. 

In November, 1848, Mr. Clay was again returned to the Sen- 
ate of the United States, by the unanimous voice of the Legis- 
lature of Kentucky, for the six year's term, beginning the 4th 
of March, 1849. There was at that time a storm lowering in 
the political horizon of the country, on the slavery question, 
threatening to dissolve the Union, whicli must necessarily burst 
over Congress, in legislating for the new territories brought into 
the Union by the result of the IMexican war ; and it was the 
earnest desire of the State of Kentucky, and of the country 
generally, that Mr. Clay, who had drawn the lightning from 
former clouds of the same aspects, and hushed the tempest, and 
whose counsels always availed in every difficult or alarming 
crisis of public affairs, should be in the councils of the nation in 
this approaching and eventful struggle. He had been rejected 
on the question as to who should stand at the helm of tlie ship 
of state ; and if he had been unamiable, he might have said, let 
her sink or be wrecked. But Mr. Clay, though reluctantly, 
yielded again to the call of his country, and took iiis seat in the 
Senate of the United States, on the 3d of December, 1849, 
nearly forty-three years after his first appearance as a member 
of that body. 

The first session of the Thirty-first Congress met on INIonday, 
the 3d of December, 1849 ; but the House of Representatives 
was not organized by the election of a Speaker till the 22d of 
December. Touching the right of the Senate lo act, while 
waiting for the organization of the House, Mr. Clay, on the 15th 



MARRIED OR SINGLE ? 101 

of December, speaking to a resolution offered by Senator Berrien 
of Georgia, said : 

" The Senate, as is well known, occupies two relations to the 
House of Representatives, both a legislative and judicial one ; 
and a third relation having no connection with it [the Senate} — 
a relation to the Executive Department of the Government. Now, 
sir, though we are not able to co-operate with the House, it cer- 
tainly forms no reason why we should not perform our duties as 
a component part of the Executive of the coutitry. * * * 
If we can proceed, then, to the consideration of Executive busi- 
ness, so far from the House taking exception to our com'se, they 
ought to be pleased that we shall be enabled to go on with the 
public business when they shall bo ready, unobstructed by those 
matters which fall exclusively within the relations of this body 
to the Executive." 

As the same occurrence of the non-election of a Speaker of 
the House of Representatives is liable to happen at the opening 
of any session of Congress, the above remarks of Mr. Clay on 
this occasion are worthy of record, as presenting the rule, and 
the only rule, that can guide the action of the Senate in such a 
case. It is clear that the Senate can not proceed to acts of legis- 
lation till the House is organized. 

In Senate, December 27, 1849, Mr. Clay said : 

" I have in my hand the petition of Miss or Mrs. — I do not 
know which — and that is a matter of public inconvenience 
often. I should be very glad if, by universal consent, some 
mark might be adopted so that you might know, when a strange 
lady addresses you, whether she is married or single. I have 
often been exceedingly embarrassed on this question, and am 
so in this case, but I suppose she is married. She signs her 
name Abigail Shaler Stilwell, and is the sister of one of the 
worthiest men I have ever known in the public service." 

The author has often observed, in the examination of Mr, 
Clay's correspondence, that he had been embarrassed with this 
same difliculty in the signatures of females, who had occasion 
to write to him, as in the case above-mentioned. It is ob-vious 

enough that the signature of Nancy does not decide 

whether the person is married or unmarried. 

A resolution was introduced into the Senate to admit Father 
Matthew within the bar, and Mr. Clemens, of Alabama, ob- 



102 FATHER MATTHEW. 

jected, on the ground that Father Matthew had interfered with 
slavery : 

Mr. Clay said : 

'' Mr. President, I confess I have heard with great regret this 
opposition. * * * It is a very small affair. * * * That 
resolution is an honor to humanity, to philanthropy, to virtue ; 
it is a merited tribute to a man who has achieved a great social 
revolution — a revolution in which there has been no blood shed, 
no desolation inflicted, no tears of widows and orphans extracted, 
and one of the greatest that has been achieved by any of the 
benefactors of mankind. I put it, in all seriousness, in the 
spirit of the most perfect kindness, to the honorable Senator 
from Alabama, whether this pushing forward the subject of 
slavery in its collateral and remote branches, upon all possible 
occasions that may arise during our deliberations in this body, is 
not impohtic, unwise, and injurious to the stability of that very 
institution which I have no doubt the honorable gentleman 
would uphold. * * * This is a compliment which, I 
venture to say, the hearts of all mankind award to this distin- 
guished foreigner — a compliment no less due to him for his 
great services in the cause of humanity than it is due to him as 
an Irish patriot." 

Every one will see how quick Mr. Clay's heart bounds to the 
right place, on every occasion of this kind. 

It is a singular fact that, in choosing a chaplain of the Senate, 
January 9, 1850, there being a tie vote, the question arose, and 
was debated at some length, whether the Chair had a casting 
vote. The Constitution reads thus : " The Vice-president shall 
be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote except when 
the Senate are equally divided." 

Impatient at such a waste of time in debate on a question so 
clear, Mr. Clay rose and said, very emphatically: "It is the pre- 
cise case for which the Constitution provides." 

It was difficult for Mr. Clay to resist the penciling of a pic- 
ture, when it was a good one, or touched his fancy. In the 
Senate, January 17, 1850, Mr Clay said : 

" Really, sir, I have no wish to interfere in this contest [about 
appointments in California] between the two honorable sena- 
tors — the senator from Connecticut [Hon. Truman Smith] 
and the senator from Illinois [Hon. Stephen A. Uonglas]. 
It seems to me to be a jiretty cciual combat ; for, if the honor- 
able Senator from Connecticut has the advantage in size, as he 



MR. CASS'S RESOLUTION. 103 

certninly has, the honorable Senator from Illinois has undoubt- 
edly gieally the advantage in position, and makes up for that for 
any dili'erence of size bctvv'^cen them." 

Mr. Smith was of good statnre and stout, and Mr. Douglas so 
diminutively small as to be universally called the Little Giant. 

Again, on one Cfcasion, when Senator Foote, of Mississippi, 
had ex|>iesscd his astonishment at Mr. Clay's inconsistency, Mr. 
Clay said : 

"The worthy Senator will allow me to say that I really can 
not govern his emolidus. He is a gentleman of fine imatjina- 
tion and great fancy ; and if he will permit himself to be 
operated upon by certain emotions that produce fancies which 
he can find no language to express, I can not help it. It must 
be the fault of his owii peculiar constitution." 

One must have known the two men, fully to appreciate this 
piece of sarcasm. 

Mr. Cass had introduced a resolution in the Senate directing 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs to inquire into the expediency 
of suspending diplomatic intercourse with Austria, because of 
her treatment cf the Hungarians; and he spoke largely and elo- 
quently of the greatness of our country, and of the spirit of 
progress. But Mr. Clay could not exactly see the connection 
between Mr. Cass's premises and his conclusion. True, Austria 
had treated the Hungarians badly, but Russia had treated them 
worse ; and if it were proper for the United States to interfere 
in thei;e matters, we should first call Russia to account. No 
man could be more sensible of the barbarities of Austria toward 
the Hungarians tiian Mr. Clay, and no one sympathized more 
sincerely or more profoundly than he, with the sufl'ercrs in those 
calamities. But what reason could this be for us to take an in- 
cipient step to a war, and to set ourselves up as umpire, uncalled, 
between foreign nations ; or what principle of pid)lic law, or of 
our own characteristic national policy, would justify us in inter- 
fering with their disputes? 

Mr. Cass ranked ]\Ir. Clay among the stand-still politicians, 
and avowed that he (Mr. Cass) was in favor of progress. Where- 
upon Mr. Clay very j;ertinently, and with no small force of sar- 
casm, arraigned his (Mr. Cass's) creed, and that of his party, on 
the subject of progress in internal improvements, and in other 



104 • MR. CLAY OX 

branches of domestic policy, wherein Mr. Clay thought progress 
might be very useful. He would go with Mr. Cass, or any other 
man. in that progress which would secure the prosperity and 
grandeur of the country ; but as for that progress sought for by 
interfering in the aflairs of foreign nations, and in provoking 
them to war with ns, for the propagation of our peculiar senti- 
ments, he (Mr. Clay) should pause on the threshold. 

The following are Mr. Clay's remarks in reply to Mr. Cass, 
January 7, 1S50 : 

" Sir, I think that the question ought to be treated as if it were 
a direct proposition to suspend diplomatic intercourse with the 
power indicated in the original resolution. And, sir, I have 
been very much struck with the want of sympathy between the 
premises and conclusion of the honorable senator from Michigan. 
In his premises he depicted the enormities of Austrian despotism! 
Who doubts the perpetration of tiiose enormities ? In the most 
glowing strains of eloquence, he portrayed to us the wrongs of 
suffering Hungary. Who doubts them ? He speaks of the atro- 
cious executions connnitted by lier — the disgrace of the age, and, 
above all, of Austria. Who doubts it ? These w'ere the prem- 
ises of the honorable senator ; but what was his conclusion ? 
It was requiring the recall of a little Charge d'Alftiires that we 
happen to have at Vienna ! Why, the natural conclusion would 
be to declare war immediately against Austria, if she had com.- 
mitted such enormities ; though, from the impossibility of com- 
ing in contact with her, this resource might be difficult of 
accomi)lishment. But, sir, there is another mode that is much 
more congenial, much more compatible witii the course we ought 
to take. The exiles from sutlering and bleeding Hungary are 
now scattered through all quarters of the globe ; some have 
reached our hospitable shores, some are now wending their Avay 
hitlier, and many are scattered throughout Europe. Let the 
honoralile senator bring forward some original plan for alfording 
succor and relief to the exiles of Hungary — something that shall 
be worthy of their acceptance, and the bestowing of which, 
upon a brave and generous peojtle, shall do honor to a country 
rich in boundless resources — SDmotliing that shall be worthy of 
a country which is tlie asylum of the wretched and the o|)prc:ssed 
from all quarters of the world — something that shall be worthy 
the acceptance of the gallantry and patriotism with which those 
exiles fought in defense of their own country. When the hon- 
oralile senator shall have done this, then he may call on me, and 
call not in vain, for succor and support in behalf of a proj)osition 
such as I have indicated. * * * Sir, unfortiuiately, owing to 
causes upon which it is not necessary for me now to dwell, some 



MR. CASS'S RESOLUTIOK^. 105 

of thorn of a very painful nature — nmong which are chnrses 
asainst the commander-in-chief of the Hnn^arian armv. which, 
if well founded, nuist cover him with infamy — unfortunately, 
Hungary fell suddenly, and to the surprise of the American 
world. She is suhdued ; she is crnshed. 

Now, if we adopt this resolution, I have been curious to satisfy 
myself upon what principle we can vindicate it. What principle 
does it involve ? It involves the principle of assuming, on the 
part of tliis Government, a right to pass judgment upon the con- 
duct of foreign powers — a branch of the subject that has been 
well treated of by the senator who sits before me (Mr. Hale). 
Have we any such power? The most extensive bearing of the 
principle involved in the resolution proposed by the honorable 
senator from Michigan, assumes the right, on the part of this 
nation, to pronounce upon the conduct of all other nations, and 
to follow it up by some direct action, such as the suspending of 
intercourse. We are directing, at present, the exercise of that 
power toward a nation, on account of the manner in which they 
have conducted a war, or of the manner in which they have 
treated the unfortunate prisoners who were taken during the 
progress of that war. But where is to be the limit ? You begin 
with war. You may extend the same principle of action to 
politics or religion — to society or to social principles and habits. 

The honorable senator before me (Mr. Hale) has spoken of the 
conduct of Russia; and undoubtedly, as between Russia and 
Austria, I consider Russia the more culpable. It is true, she had 
a pretext for her interference. She was afraid of the contagion 
of liberty in Hungary, lest it might atfect her coterminous pos- 
sessions. That was the pretext for her interference. In the 
case, however, of Austria, though 1 think Hungary was right and 
Austria wrong in respect to the cause and object of the war, still 
there were relations existing between Hungary and Austria 
which did not exist between Hungary and Russia. Russia's in- 
terference, then, was voluntary, spontaneous, uncalled for. She 
had no such pretext or ground for it as Austria had, in endeavor- 
inc' to subjugate those whom she was pleased to call rebellious 
subjects ; and yet the honorable senator has permitted Russia to 
pass — and, by the by, allow me to say that, but for the inter- 
ference of Russia, Hungary would have succeeded. Siie had 
succeeded, and she would have eventually triumphed in the 
stru22;le with Austria. The honorable senator, instead of direct- 
ing his proposition against Russia, as I would have done, directs 
it against Austria, the less olfending power of the two, and pro- 
poses to pass Russia by unnoticed. But if the principle contained 
in the proposition be true, we have a right to examine into the 
conduct of Russia, and into that of other nations. Where, then, 
is the limit ? You may extend it to religic^n. You may extend 
it to the Inquisition. Have we not an equal right to say to 



106 MR. CLAY ON 

Spain, ' Unless you abolish the Inquisition, we will suspend diplo- 
matic intercourse with you?' * * * vSir, if we are to become the 
defenders of nations, the censnrers of other powers, I again ask 
the honorable senator where are we to stop ? and why does he 
confine himself to Austria alone ? 

" Mr. President, the honorable senator admitted that he enter- 
tained an appreliension that I was one of those stationary politi- 
cinns who refuse to advance as the age advances ; one of those 
politicians, I think his expression was, that stand still ; that he 
was in favor of Progress — in favor of going ahead. Sir. I should 
like to understand the meaning of this word ' Progress,' of which 
the honorable senator speaks. I should like to hear a definition 
of it. Has not tliis nation progressed with most astonishing 
rapidity in point of population ? Has it not by far exceeded, in 
this respect, every other nation in the world ? Has it not pro- 
gressed in commerce and manufactures? Has it not increased 
in power with a rapidity greater than has ever been known be- 
fore in the case of any nation under the sun ? What is the pro- 
gress which the honorable senator means ? I am afraid that it is 
not an internal progress he is in favor of; for, whatever his own 
peculiar opinions may be, the school of which he is a distin- 
guished disciple is opposed, as I understand, to the improvement 
of our magnificent harbors and rivers — of our glorious water- 
courses throughout the country. This is not the progress, I 
apprehend, which the honorable senator is in favor of. And, 
again, with respect to the manufactures of the country, I do not 
understand the doctrines of the party to which the honorable 
senator belongs to be in favor of progress there. They are for 
arresting progress. Their progress is backward in reference to 
tiiese matters ; not intentionally so, I admit, but by the couree 
of their policy, they can-y us back to the colonial days, when we 
depended upon Great Britain for every thing in the way of sup- 
plies that were necessary to existence. 

•' What, then, is the progress which the honorable senator 
seems so desirous of making ? Ah ! I am afraid that it is pro- 
gress in foreign wars. I am afraid it is progress in foreign con- 
quest — in territorial aggrandizement. I am afraid it is ])rogress 
as tlie disturhers of the possessions of our neighbors throughout 
this continent and throughout the islands adjacent to it. If that 
be the progress which the honorable senator wishes to elTect, I 
trust that it will be long before the country engages in any such 
object as that ; at least, at the expense of tlie peaceable portion 
of the world. 

" Sir, the gendeman says — what we all know — that this is a 
great counu-y, a vast country ; great in fact, and will be still 
greater in t'utiue if we conduct tilings with prudence, discretion, 
and wi.-doni : but that very greatness draws after it great respon- 
sibilities, and those responsibilities should incline us to use the 



MR. c ass's resolution. 107 

vast power with which we have been blessed by t'l*' kiudiipss 
of Providence, so as to promote jiistice, so as to avoid nincnes- 
sarv wais."niaintainiiiGf our own riorhts with firmness, h!it iiv'-nl- 
ing the rights of no others. We should be content with the 
ahnost limitless extent of territory which we now posse-s, stretch- 
ing from ocean to ocean, containing millions upon millions of 
acres as yet uninhabited. 

" Sir, if ihe progress which the honorable senator mf^xns is a 
progress to be accomplished by foreign wars, and foreia;n con- 
quest, and foreign territorial agsrandizement, I thank God that 
I belong to the party that is stationary — that is standing stiil. If 
that is not his object, I sliould like to know what he menus l)y 
progress. I should like to meet witli a defiuition of t'le kind of 
progress which he thinks it is desiral)le for this country to make. 

" ]Mr. President, i have risen late in the eve.)ing, really intend- 
ing to have said much less than I have said ; and I uuist con- 
clude by expressing the hope that the Senate of the United 
States, when they come to deliberate seriously upon the conse- 
quence of the adoption of such a resolution as this, will pause ; 
that they will not open a new field of collision leiminating per- 
haps in war, and exposing ourselves to the reaciion of Fcreign 
Powers, who, when they see ns assuming to judge of tiieir con- 
duct, will undertake in their turn to judge of our conduct. We 
ough: to recollect that, witii the sole exception of France, whose 
condition is yet somewhat obscured in doubt and uncertainty as 
to the fate of a republic which slie has established, wo stand the 
leading Rejniblic amid all the Powers of the earth, an example 
of a free Government, and that We should not venture to give to 
the other nations even a pretext, much less cause, to sej.a^ate 
themselves from us, by undertaking to judge of tiieir conduct, 
and applying to tliem a rule by which we might deuaiioiialize 
nation after nation, according as their condiu-t may be iouiid to 
correspond with our notion and j.idgment of what is right and 
proper in tiie administration of human atfairs. Sir, it uues not 
become us to take such perilous and uiiLiecessary grou.-ds, and I 
trust that we shall not ado]>t such a couise. i see lu) i.eccstity 
for referring this resolution to a cummiitce. 1 think ii wuuid be 
unwise to adopt it, and 1 trust the Senate will at once negative 
the resolution ; or, if it shuidd be referred, confiding m tlie bound 
judgment of the Committee on Foreign Relations in anticipa- 
tion, 1 feel perfectly sure of the rejection of tne resoluiioa by tne 
Committee.'' 

Mr. Cass's resolution was rejected, and a motion which he 
afterward made to strike out from the Appropriation Bill the item 
for the outfit of our Charge to Austria, was also negatived by a 
decided vote. 



108 WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. 

No one can read the following remarks of Mr. Clay, made in 
Senate, Jannary 24, 1850, on a resolution he had offered to that 
body to purchase the manuscript copy of Washington's* Farewell 
Address, without being sensible how perfectly characteristic they 
are of the speaker, how pertinent to the subject, how truly elo- 
quent and patriotic. It was an occasion well fitted to stir up the 
lowest depths of Mr. Clay's feelings as a man, and as an Ameri- 
can statesman. It should be recollected, in the perusal of these 
remarks, that Mr. Clay then stood in the presence of those agi- 
tators, throughout the length and breadth of the Union, on the 
subject of slavery, which induced him, at the earnest solicita- 
tions of his friends, and of the Legislatilre of Kentucky, to 
leave once more the shades of Ashland, to exert his influence in 
the Senate of the United States, in connection with others, to 
appease this perilous strife of the country. It was at the very 
moment when he was preparing his resolutions of compromise — 
since and hereafter to be termed the Compromise of 1850, 
His days and nights were then devoted to this grand and preg- 
nant theme. Wliat an oasis in this desert of weary thought, 
was the accidental presentation of this subject by a newspaper 
advertisement offering for sale at auction the manuscript copy of 
General \Vashington's Farewell xVddress ! The appeal was too 
strong to be resisted ; and we see by his remarks how refreshing 
and hopeful were the workings of his mind on this occasion. 
Washington's Farewell Address, the original copy of which was 
then in the market, was exactly the theme for the time and circum- 
stance. It was a kind of inspired text to preach a sermon from, 
than which nothing could be more seasonable. It came in, provi- 
dentially, to back and enforce the great argument which Mr. 
Clay was at that moment preparing in his closet, and which re- 
sulted in the Compromise of 1850. He had only to travel back- 
ward in history, and plant liimself on the platform of Washing- 
ton's Farewell Address, The sentiments of his own bosom 
were reflected from that mirror, and he had only to echo the 
voice of the Father of his country, so long since, and in such 
solcnni circinnstanccs, sounded out as an admonition to the 
American people. Mr. Clay said : 

" It is about fifty-three years ago since General Washington, 
the Father of his Country, by nnivcrsal consent, addressed to 
the ])e()j)le of the United States the document described in that 
resolution [offered by Mr. Clay, January 20, 1850]. At the time 



Washington's farewell address. 109 

of the preparation of it, there was a paper, which those w]io are 
conversant with the history of the country at tlie time, will rec- 
ollect was published at Philadelphia by an extremely respectable 
and intelligent gentleman, Mr. Claypoole, called the Dai/j/ Ad- 
vertise?'. General Washington selected that paper for the pub- 
lication of his Farewell Address ; and after it was committed to 
print, Mr. Claypoole proposed to return the original document to 
General Washington, and waited upon him for that purpose ; but 
being extremely desirous to possess it, he expressed his wish to 
General Washington that he would like to retain it as a me- 
morial of him. General Washington assented, and from that day 
to this, the paper has been in the hands, either of Mr. Claypoole 
or of some of his descendants. 

" I was struck by an advertisement, which I saw some short 
time ago, published in one of the papers of Philadelphia, to this 
effect : — 

" ' The original manuscript of General Washington's Valedictory 
Address to the people of the United States, will be sold on Tues- 
day, February 12, 1850, at half past six o'clock, p. m. This paper, 
in the handwriting, and bearing the signature of General Wash- 
ington, \vas presented by him to Mr. Claypoole, the then editor 
and proprietor of the Daili/ Advertiser — the paper which Gen- 
eral Washington had selected for its publication. The sale will 
be peremptory.' 

" Well, sir, when I read that advertisement, I said to myself, 
what is to become of this precious document? Is it to be sold, 
perhaps to be transferred out of the country, and made the orna- 
ment of the parlor of some of the distinguished men .of Europe — 
men of rank, or title, or literary fame ? Or, shall it remain here? 
Sir, I could not for a moment hesitate as to the promptings of 
my own heart. I said — ' Here — here in this Capitol, in the Li- 
brary of this nation, ought this document to be deposited.' 

" Mr. President, man is not an abstraction. He is a being 
possessing feelings, sensations, sympathies : and allow me also 
to say, sir, that, although we may derive great pleasure in having 
the narratives of the glory of our ancestors, and the deeds of the 
men of celebrity in our own country, yet some physical memorial 
of them, some tangil)le, palpable object, always addresses itself to 
our hearts and to our feelings. Su-, is there a son living, who, 
on the death of his father, will not look with pride and satisfac- 
tion upon the objects which were dear to that father during his 
lifetime — upon tlie cane which sustained his tottering steps in 
the latter period of his life, upon the watch which he wore, upon 
the horse on which he rode, upon the saddle on which he sat, upon 
the cup from which his thirst was quenched? And, sir, is there 
an American son of Washington, as we all are, who can not and 
who will not always look with pleasure and satisfaction upon the 
objects with which his name was connected? 



110 Washington's farewell address. 

" Sir, in my own hnmhle parlor at Ashlanrl, T have at t'lis mo- 
mont, a broken goblet which was used l)y General Washington 
dnri'is: ahnost the whole of the Revolntionary war. It was in 
his camp, confided to me by an old lady of some eighty years of 
age ; and, sir, there is nothing in that parlor so much revered, or 
which is an object of greater admiration by the stranger who^ 
con-.es to see me. This feehno; of attachment to these objects, 
associated witli the memory of those we venerate, and whom we 
loved daring their life time, is not merely a private feeling of at- 
tachment ; it is a broader, more comprehensive, and national feel- 
ins. Do we not all recollect how the hearts of all France thrilled 
with joy when they learned that the remains of Napoleon were to 
be transported from the island of St. Helena back to that country 
upon which he had shed so much glory ? Do we not all recollect 
with what sensations of indignation England heard the proposi- 
tion to transport the remains of the humble dwelling — it was, 
indeed, humble — in which Shakspearo had his birth ? And how 
indignant did we feel when we heard the report — though fortu- 
nately it turned out not to be true — that some desperate rob- 
ber had violated the grave of Washington himself, for the 
purpose of transporting his remains to a distant land ? Sir, these 
are feelings which are worthy of being countenanced and cher- 
ished l)y public authority. 

" To say nothing of the nature and character of that address, 
who is there, sir, amid the discordance and ungrateful sounds of 
disunion and discord which assail our ears in every part of this 
country, and in both halls of Congress — who, I ask, is there that 
would not find refreshment and deliirht behind the Farewell Ad- 
dress of Washington to the people of this country ? Who is 
there that would not trace the paternal and patriotic advice with 
pleasure, wliich was written by his own hand — that hand which, 
after having grasped the sword that achieved the liberties of our 
country, traced with the instrument of peace the document which 
then gave us that advice, so necessary to preserve and transmit to 
posterity the treasure he had bestowed upon us ? Who is there, 
in tracing that advice to beware of sectional division, to beware 
of demagogues, to beware of the consequences of indulging a 
spirit of disunion — who is there, in reading these lines of truly 
paternal advice, that will not in imagination transport himself 
back to the period when they were committed to paper by the 
hand of Washington,, and think of the emotions, the paternal 
and patriotic emotions, at that precious moment, which must 
have animated his breast?" 

It was this same day that Mr. Clay had occasion to present a 
petition to the Senate for the purchase of Mount Vernon, on 
which occasion he said : 



PURCHASE OF MOUNT VERNON. Ill 

" I have been very mnch struck, Mr. President, with what 
seemed to be a most remarkable coincidence. I have submitted 
a resohition which I hope the Senate will permit to be taken up 
and passed, relating to the purchase of the manuscript copy of 
the Farewell Address of the Father of his country. I had 
scarcely jiresented that resolution when I was requested to go to 
the door, where 1 met a stranger who bore a petition from Penn- 
sylvania, numerously signed, requesting Congress to purchase 
Mount Vernon. The petitioners state that, in their opinion, that 
property should be national ; that it is less accessible in the hands 
of private individuals than it should be ; but that, if it belonged 
to the Republic, all could repair to it, as to the political Mecca of 
their country. I ask that the petition be received, and. referred 
to the Committee for the District of Columbia." 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE COMPKOMISE OF 1850. 

The critical Condition of the Country.— Mr. Clay's Resolutions of Compromise, and 
his Opening Remarks upon them.— The Boundary of Texas on the West and 
North-West, as Claimed by Herself.— The Consequences of the false Pretext of 
Congress for the Mexican War.— Origin of the Wilraot Proviso.— General Taylor 
opposed to the Claims of Texas, and Danger of CivQ War.- Mr. Rusk and other 
Senators oppose Mr. Clay's Resolutions. 

The last great effort of Mr. Clay's public life, and that which 
hastened the termination of his earthly career, remains to be 
told. The country was in a peculiar and critical condition, 
arising from the annexation of Texas, the Mexican war that fol- 
lowed, and the acquisition of new and vast territories. The 
great question was, whether the purpose of the war for the ex- 
tension of slavery should be consummated by the legislation 
required for the government of the newly-acquired territories ; or 
whether it should be disappointed. For, that the extension of 
the domain of slavery 7cas the secret purpose of the war, can 
hardly be doubted by those who believe in nwral necessity, and 
that men who are invested with power will act as their interests 
and passions incline them. Mr. Tyler, in going out of power, 
consummated the annexation of Texas ; and Mr. Polk, his suc- 
cessor, adopted the policy which annexation involved — war, con- 
quest, and the extension of the '''area of freedom/' as the politi- 
cal slang of the day denominated it — the meaning of which 
could not be concealed by such a robe. The holiest names must 
needs be prostituted to the most unholy of purposes. The world 
forgets the origin of the name of Jesuits, in the tracery of the 
dark liistory of crime which it suggests, and is shocked, when 
reminded that the highest style of the Saviour of mankind is in 
it. So may thi' juetext of freedom be perverted to unholy ends. 
Mr. Clay could not violate his conscience in promoting the 



THE MAX OF COMrROMISE. 113 

extension of slavery, though no man would go further than he 
in vindicating the constitutional rights of the South against the 
Aholitionists of the Nortli. But he regarded slavery as ah evil. 
The annexation of Texas, however, had been cilected, the war 
had come, and its conc^uests remained upon our hands. Should 
these conquests be used for the benefit of slavery or for freedom ? 
Not to use them for tiic former purpose, would be a disappoint- 
ment of the original and main design of the war. It was a 
question of no less import that constituted the great strife of the 
first session of the Thirty-first Congress; and Mr. Clay was a 
leader in the combat. But Mr. Clay was the man of compromise. 
When Missouri knocked at the door of Congress for admission 
into the Union, she knocked on the heart of the nation, and 
stirred up the strongest passions for and against slavery. The 
controversy was in the most alarming degree menacing, Avhen 
Mr. Clay stepped in with his Compromise, in 1S21, and stilled 
the waves which rolled in fearful volumes over the wide sur- 
face of the Republic. When Nullification raged in the South, 
and menaced disturbance to the peace, and violence to the 
integrity of the Union, in 1833, again Mr. Clay came for- 
ward with his Compromise, pouring oil on the troubled waters, 
and restored tranquillity and contentment; and the last public 
efi"ort of his life was in the way of compromise. He meant, 
he wished no unfairness to the South. He was himself a 
southern man, and a slaveholder. He would protect their con- 
stitutional rights to the last item of any just claim. But he 
would also respect the feelings of the North — the feelings of 
mankind, and the public opinion of the world. He would, 
never consent that the national escutcheon of the Federal Re- 
public of North America should be stained with the propagand- 
ism of slavery. 

But how should this new and great question be settled ? 
There were elements in it of a very complex, and of an ex- 
tremely novel character. The Thirtieth Congress had ad- 
journed without organizing the new Territories, or settling any 
great principles as to their future government and destiny, and 
left them to take care of themselves as well as they could ; with 
an executive supervision from Washington, indeed, involving a 
lofty and almost unlimited discretion, the use of which might or 
might not be judicious. California had gone forward without 
asking leave, formed a state government prohibiting slavery, and 



114 MR, clay's resolutions 

put its machinery in operation. Utah was governed by a liigh 
and arbitrary spiritual despotism, the character of which, so far 
as known, shocked the sentiments of the civihzed world ; and 
New ]\Iexico was under military rule, ordered from the seat of 
Federal power, in conflict with the claims of Texas, whicli, from 
time to time, exhibited the menacing aspect of being asserted by 

force of arms. 

In this state of things, Mr. Clay, on the 29th of January, 
brousht forward in the Senate of the United States, his famed 
resolutions for compromise. 

Tbese resolutions, and the remarks which accompanied them 
when they were first introduced, occupy so prominent and so 
important a place in Mr. Clay's history, that it is thought proper 
to cite them here without abridgment. On the day above 
named, Mr. Clay rose in the Senate, and said : 

"Mr. President, I hold in my hand a series of resolutions 
which I desire to submit to the consideration of this body. 
Taken together, in combination, they propose an aryicable ar- 
rangement of all questions in controversy between the free and 
the slave States, growing out of the subject of slavery. It is 
not my intention, Mr. President, at this time, to enter into a full 
and elaborate discussion of each of these resolutions, taken sep- 
arately, or the whole of them combined together, as composing 
a system of measures : but I desire to present a few observations 
upon each resolution, with the purpose chiefly of exposing it 
fairly and fully before the Senate and before the country ; and I 
may add, with the indulgence of the Senate, toward the con- 
clusion, some general observations upon the state of the country, 
and the condition of the questions to which the resolutions relate. 
Whether they shall or shall not meet with the approbation and 
concurrence of the Senate, as I most ardently hope tliey may, 
as I most sincerely believe they ought, I trust that at least some 
portion of the long time whicli I have devoted with care and 
deliberation, to the prei)aratioa of these resolutions, and to the 
presentation of tliis great national scheme of compromise and 
harmony, will be employed by each senator before he pronounces 
against the propositions embraced in these resolutions. The re- 
solutions, sir, arc all preceded by a short preamble, to- which, of 
course, 1 attach no very great importance. The preamble and 
first resolution arc as follows : 

'• ' It being desirable for the peace, concord, and harmony of 
the union of these States to settle and adjust amicably all exist- 
ing questions of controversy between them arising out of the 
institution of slavery, upon a fair, equitable, and just basis : 
Therefore 



OF COI\rPROMISE. 115 

"'1st. Tfcsolvcd, Tlmt California, witli siiitahle hounflnrios, 
oiiGflit. upon her application, to lie admitted a? one of the States 
of this Union, without the imposition by Conjzross of any re- 
striction in respect to the exclusion or introduction of slavery 
within those boundaries.' 

" Mr. President, it must be acknowledged that there has been 
some irregularity in the movements which have terminated in the 
adoption of a constitution by California, and in the expression of 
her wish, not yet formally communicated to Congress it is true, 
but which may be anticipated in a few days, to be admitted into 
the Union as a State. There has been some irregularity in the 
manner in which they have framed that constitution. It "vvas 
not preceded by any act of Congress authorizing the Convention, 
and designating the boundaries of the proposed State, according 
to all the early practice of this Government, according to all the 
cases of the admission of new States into this Union, Miiich oc- 
curred, 1 think, prior to that of Michigan. Michigan, if I am 
not mistaken, was the first State which, unbidden, unauthorized 
by any previous act of Congress, undertook to form for herself a 
constitution, and to knock at the door of Congress for admission 
into the Union. I recollect that at the time when Michigan thus 
presented herself, I Avas opposed, in consequence of that devia- 
tion from the early practice of the Government, to the admission. 
The majority determined otherwise ; and it must be in candor 
admitted by all men, that California had much more reason to do 
what she has done, unsanctioned and unauthorized by a previous 
act of Congress, than Michigan had to do what she did. 

" Sir, notwithstanding the irregularity of the admission of 
Michigan into the Union, it has been a happy event. She forms 
now one of the bright stars of this glorious Confederacy. She 
has sent here to minsle in our councils senators and representa- 
tives — men eminently distinguished, with whom we may all 
associate with pride, with pleasure, and with satisfaction. And 
I trust that if California, irregular as her previous action may 
have been in the adoption of a constitution, but more justifiable 
than was the action of Michigan — if she also shall be admitted, 
as is proposed by the first resolution, with suitable limits, that 
she, too, will make her contribution of wisdom, of patriotism, 
and of good feeling to this body, in order to conduct the affairs 
of this great and boundless empire. 

'•The resolution proposes her admission when she applies for 
it. There is no intention on my part to anticipate such an ap- 
plication, but I thought it right to present this resolution as a 
part of the general plan which I proi)Ose lor the adjustment of 
these unhappy difficulties. 

" The second resolution, sir, is as follows : 

" ' 2d. Resolved, That as slavery does not exist by law, and is 
not likely to be introduced into any of the territory acquired by 



116 MR. clay's resolutions 

the United States from the repnbhc of Mexico, it is inexpedient 
for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction into or 
exchision from any part of tlie said territory ; and that appropri- 
ate territorial governments onght to be established ])y Congress 
in all of the said territory, not assigned as the boundaries of the 
proposed State of California, without the adoption of any restric- 
tion or condition on the subject of slavery.' 

'•This resolution, sir, proposes, in the first instance, a declara- 
tion of two truths, one of law and the other of fact. The truth 
of law which it declares is, that there does not exist at this time**" 
slavery within any portion,of the territory acquired by the United 
States /rom ^Mexico. When I say, sir, it is a truth, I speak my 
owij solemn and deliberate conviction. I am aware that some 
gentlemen have held a different doctrine ; but I persuade myself 
that they themselves, when they come 'to review the Avholc 
ground, will see sufficient reasons for a change, or at least a 
modification of their opinions ; but that, at all events, if they 
adhere to that doctrine, they will be foimd to comjiose a very 
small minority of the whole mass of the people of the United 
States. 

" The next truth which the resolution asserts is, that slavery 
is not likely to be introduced into any portion of that territory. 
That is a matter of fact ; and all the evidence upon which the 
fact rests, is, perhaps, as accessible to other senators as it is to 
me ; but I must say that, from all I have heard or read, from the 
testimony of all the witnesses Ihave seen and conversed with, 
from all that has transpired and is transjnriug, I do believe that 
not within one foot of the territory acquired by us from Mexico 
will slavery ever be planted, and I believe it could not be done 
even by the force and power of public authority. 

" Sir, facts are daily occurring to justify me in this opinion. 
Sir, what has occurred ? And upon that subject, and indeed 
upon this whole subject, I invite senators from the free States 
especially to consider what has occuiTed even since the last ses- 
sion — even since the commencement of this session — since they 
left their respective constituencies without an opportunity of 
consulting with them upon that great and momentous fact — tiie 
fact that California herself, of which it was asserted and pre- 
dicted that she never would establish slavery within her limits 
when she came to be admitted as a State ; that California her- 
self, embracing, of all other j)ortions of the country acquired by 
us iVom iNlexico, that country into which it would have been 
most likely that slavery should have been introduced ; that Cali- 
fornia herself has met in convention, and by a unanimous vote, 
embracing in that body slaveholders from the State of ]\lississi})pi, 
as well as from other parts, who concurred in the resolution — that 
California l.)y a unanimous vole, luis declared against the inlro- 
ductiou of slavery within her limits. 1 think, then, that taking 



OF COMPROMISE, 117 

tliis leading fact in connection with all tlie evidence we liave 
from o.ther sources on the subject, I am warranted in the conclu- 
sion which constitutes the second truth which I have stated in 
this resolution, that slav^ery is ' not likely to be introduced' into 
any of the territory acquired by us from Mexico.' 

" Sir, the latter part of the resohition asserts that it is the duty 
of Congress to establish aj^propriatc territorial governments with- 
in all the country acquired from ^Mexico, exclusive of California, 
not embrachig in the acts by which these govenmients shall be 
constituted either a prohibition or admission of slavery. 

" Sir, much as I am disposed to defer to high authority, anx- 
ious as I really am to fnul myself in a position that would en- 
able me to co-operate heartily with the other departments of the 
government in conducting the alfairs of this great people, I must 
say that I can not without a dereliction of duty consent to an 
abandonment of them witliout government, leaving them to all 
those scenes of disorder, confusion, and anarchy, which I appre- 
hend, in respect of some o( them, tlierc is too much reason to 
anticipate will arise. It is the duty, the solemn — I was going to 
add the most sacred — duty of Congress to legislate for their gov- 
ernment, if they can, and, at all events, to legislate for them, and 
to give them the benefit of law, and order, and security. 

" The next resolutions are the third and fourth, which, having 
an immediate connection with each other, should be read and 
considered together. They are as follows : 

" ' 3d. Resolved, That the western boundary of the State of 
Texas ought to be fixed on the Rio del Norte, conmiencing one 
marine league fwm its mouth, and running up that river to the 
southern line of New Mexico ; thence with that line eastwardly, 
and so continuing in the same direction to the line established 
between the United States and Spain, excluding any portion of 
New Mexico, whether lying on the east or west of that river.' 

<"4th. Resolved, That it be proposed to the State of Texas, 
that the United States will provide for the payment of all that 
portion of the legitimate and bona fide public debt of that State, 
contracted prior to its annexation to the United States, and for 
wjiich the duties on foreign imports were pledged by the said 
State to its creditors, not exceeding the sum of $ , in con- 
sideration of the said dues so pledged having been no longer ap- 
plicable to that object after the said annexation, but having thence- 
forward become payable to the United States ; and upon the 
condition also, that the said State of Texas shall, by some sol- 
emn and authentic act of her legislature, or of a convention, 
relinquish to the United States any claim which it has to any 
part of New Mexico. 

'^ Mr. President, I do not mean now, I do not know that I shall 
at any lime (it is a very complex subject, and one not free from 
difficulty) to go into the question of what are the true limits of 



118 MR. clay's resolutions 

Texas. ^ly own opinion is, I must say, without intending by 
tlie remark to go into any argument, tliat Texas has not a good 
title to any portion of what is called New Mexico. And yet, 
sir, I am free to admit that, looking at the grounds which her 
representatives assumed, first in the war with Santa Anna in 
1836, then at what transpired between Mr. Trist and the Mexi- 
can negotiators when tlic treaty of peace was negotiated, and 
then the fact that the United States have acquired all the coun- 
try which Texas claimed as constituting a portion of her terri- 
tory ; looking at all these facts, but without attaching to them, 
either together or separately, the same degree of force which 
gentlemen who think that Texas has a right to New Mexico do, 
I must say that there is plausihility, to say the least of it, in the 
pretensions that she sets up to New Mexico. I do not think that 
they constitute or demonstrate the existence of a good title, but 
a i)l;uisible one. Well, then, sir, what do I propose ? Without 
entering into any inquiry whether the Nueces or the Rio Grande 
was the true boundary of Texas, I propose, by tiie first of these 
two resolutions, that its western limits shall be fixed on the Rio 
del Norte, extending west from the Sabine to the mouth of the 
Rio del Norte, and that it shall follow up the Bravo or the Rio 
del Norte, to where it strikes the southern line of New Mexico, 
and then, diverging from that line, follow on in that direction 
mitil it reaches the line as fixed by the United States and Spain, 
by their treaty of 1810; and thus embracing a vast country, 
abundantly competent to form two or three States — a country 
which I thmk the highest ambition of her greatest men ought to 
be satisfied with as a State and member of this Union. 

" But, sir, the second of these resolutions makes a proposition 
to the State of Texas upon which I desire to say a few words. 
It proposes that the Govennnent of the United States will provide 
for the payment of all that portion of the debt of Texas for 
which the duties received upon imports from foreign countries 
were pledged by Texas at a time when she had authority to make 
pledges. How much it will amount to I have endeavored to 
ascertain, but all the means requisite to the ascertainment of the 
sum have not been received, and it is not very essential at this 
time, because it is the principle and not the amount that is most 
wortliy of consideration. Now, sir, the ground upon which I 
base tliis lialulity on the part of the United States to pay a speci- 
fied portion of the debt of Texas is not new to me. It is one 
which i have again and again announced to be an ojunion enter- 
tained by me. I think it is founded upon principles of truth and 
eternal justice. Texas, being an nidep'ondent power, recognized 
as such by all the great jjowers of the earth, invited loans to be 
made to lier, to enable her to prosecnte the then existing war 
between her and Mexico. She told those whom she m\ iled to 
make these loans, that ' if you make them, the duties on foreign 



OF COMPROMISE. 119 

imports shall be sacredly" pledged for the reimbursement of the 
loans.' The loans were made. The money was received, and 
expended in the establishment of hor liberty and her indenoiid- 
ence. After all tliis, she annexed herself to the United States. 
who thenceforward acquired the right to the identical pledge 
which she had made to the pidilic creditor to satisfy the loan of 
money which he had advanced to her. The United States be- 
came the owners of that pledge, and the recipient of all the 
duties payable in the ports of Texas. 

''Now, sir, I do say that, in my humble judgment, if there be 
honor, or justice, or truth among men, we do owe to the creditors 
who thus advanced their money upon that pledge, the reimburse- 
ment of the money, at all events to the extent that the ])lcd2ed 
fund would have reimbursed it, if it had never been appropriated 
by us to our use. We must recollect, sir, that in relation to that 
pledge, and to the loan made in virtue and on the faitli of it, 
there were three parties bound — I mean after annexation — the 
United States, Texas, and the creditor of Texas, who had ad- 
vanced his money on the faith of a solemn pledge made by 
Texas. 

"Texas and the United States misht do what they thousrht 
proper; Init in justice they could do nothing to deprive the 
creditor of a full reliance upon the pledge upon the faith of which 
he had advanced his money. Sir, it is impossible now to ascer- 
tain how much would have been received from that source of 
revenue by the State of Texas, if she had remained independent. 
It would be most unjust to go there now and examine at Gal- 
veston and her other ports, to ascertain how much she now re- 
ceives by her foreign imports; because, by being incorporated 
into this Union, all her supplies, which formerly were received 
from foreign countries, and subject — many of them at least — to 
import duties, are now received by the coasting trade, instead of 
being received from other countries, as they would have been, 
if she had remained inde]^endent. Considering the extent of her 
territory, and the rapid manner in which her population is in- 
creasing, and is likely to increase, it is probable that in the course 
of a few years there mi^ht have been such an amouut received 
at the various ports of Texas — she remaining indc])eudent — as 
would have been adequate to the extinction of the debt to which 
I have referred. 

" But, sir, it is not merely in the discharge of what I consider 
to be a valid and legitimate obligation resting upon the United 
States to discharge the specified duty, it is not upon that con- 
dition alone that this payment is proposed to be made ; it is also 
upon the further condition that Texas shall relinquish to the 
United States any claini that she has to any portion of New 
Mexico. Now, sir, although, as I believe, she has not a valid 
title to any portion of New Mexico, she has a claim ; and for the 



120 MR. clay's resolutions 

sake of tliat general quiet and harmony, for the sake of that ac- 
commodation, which ousht to be as much the olijoct of legisla- 
tion as it is of individuals in their transactions in private life, we 
may do now what an individual in analosons circumstances 
miijlit do — sive something for the rehuquishment of a claim, al- 
thonsli it should not be well founded, for the sake of peace. It 
is, therefore, proposed — and this resolution does propose — that 
wc shall pay the amount of the debt contracted l)y Texas prior 
to its annexation to the United States, in consideration of our 
reception of the duties applicable to the extinction of that debt ; 
and that Texas shall also, in consideration of a sum to be ad- 
vanced, relinquish any claim which she has to any portion of 
New ^Mexico. 

'• Tlie fifth resolution, sir, and the sixth, like the third and 
fourth, are somewhat connected together. They are as follows: 

'•'5th. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in 
the District of Columl)ia, while that institution continues to exist 
in the State of Maryland, without the consent of that State, 
without the consent of the people of the District, and without 
just compensation to the owners of slaves within the District. 

" ' 6th. But Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit within 
the District the slave-trade, in slaves brought into it from States 
or places beyond the limits of the District, either to be sold 
therein as merchandise, or to be transported to other markets, 
without the District of Columbia.' 

"The first of these resolutions, Mr. President, in somewhat 
diflerent language, asserts substantially no other principle than 
that which was asserted by the Senate of the United States 
twelve years ago, upon the resolutions which I then otiered, and 
which passed — at least the particular resolution passed — by a 
majority of four fifths of the Senate. I allude to the resolution 
presented by me in 1S3S. I shall not enlarge on that resolution ; 
it speaks for itself; it declares that the institution of slavery 
should not be abolished in the District of Oolumbia without the 
concurrence of three conditions; first, the assent of Maryland; 
second, the assent of the people within the District ; and third, 
comjicnsation to the owners of the slaves within the District lor 
' their ])roperty. 

" The next resolution proposed deserves a passing remark. It 
is that the slave-trade within the District ought to be abolished, 
prohihited. I do not mean by that the alienation'and transfer of 
slaves from the inhabitants within this District — the sale by one 
neighbor to another of a slave which the one owns and the other 
wants, that a husband may perhaps be put along witli his wife, 
or a wife with her husband. I do not mean to touch at all the 
question t)f the right of jtroiierty in slaves among persons living 
within the District; but the slave-trade to which I refer was, I 
think, pronounced un abomination more than forty years ago, by 



OF COMrROMISE. 121 

one of the most gifted and distinguished sons of Virginia, the 
late Mr. Raiidolpli. And who is there who is not sliooked at its 
enormity? Sir, it is a great mistake at tlie North, if tliey sup- 
pose that gentlemen living in the slave States look upon one 
wlio is a regular trader in slaves \vith any particular favor or 
kindness. They are often — sometimes unjustly, perhaps — ex- 
cluded from social intercourse. I have known some memorable 
instances of this sort. But, then, what is tliis trade ? It is a 
good deal limited since the retrocession of that portion of the 
District formerly belonging to Virginia. There are Alexandria, 
Richinond, Petersburg, and Norfolk, south of the Potomac, and 
Baltimore, Annapolis, and perhaps other ports, north of the Po- 
tomac. Let the slave-dealer, who chooses to collect his slaves in 
Virginia and JMary'and, go to these places; let him not come 
here and establish his jails, and put on his chains, and sometimes 
shocic the sensibilities of our nature by a long train of slaves 
passing through that avenue leading from this Capitol to the 
house of the Chief Magistrate of one of the most glorious Re- 
publics that ever existed. Why should he not do it? Sir, I 
am sure I speak the sentiments of every Southern man, and 
every man coming from the slave States, when I say let it ter- 
minate, and that it is an abomination ; and there is no occasion 
for it ; it ought no longer to be tolerated. 

" The seventh resolution relates to a subject embraced in a bill 
now under consideration by the Senate. It is as follows : 

" ' 7th. Resolved, That more eflectual provision ought to be 
made by law, according to the requirement of the Constitution, 
for the restitution and delivery of persons bound to service or la- 
bor in any State who may escape into any other State or Terri- 
tory in the Union.' 

'• Sir, that is so evident, and has been so clearly shown by the 
debate which has already taken place on the subject, that I have 
not now occasion to add another word. 

'■ The last resolution of the series of eight is as follows : 

" 'And 8th. Resolved, That Congress has no power to jirohibit 
or obstruct the trade in slaves between the slaveholding States ; 
but that the admission or exclusion of slaves brought from one 
into another of them, depends exclusively upon their own par- 
ticular laws.' 

" It is obvious that no legislation is necessary or intended to 
follow that resolution. It merely asserts a truth, established by 
the higliest authority of law in this country, and, in conformity 
witli that decision, I trust tiiere will be one universal acqui- 
escence. 

" I should not have thought it necessary to embrace in that 
resolution the declaration which is embraced in it, but that I 
thought it might be uset\il in treating of tlie wiiole subject, and 
in accordance with the practice of our British and American an- 



122 MR. clay's RESOLUTIOyS 

cestors, occasionnlly to resort to ?reat fundamental principles, and 
bring them freshly and manifestly before our eyes, from time to 
time, to avoid their beina: violated upon any occasion. 

'• ]\Ir. President, yon have before yon the whole series of re- 
solutions, tlie whole scheme of arrano^ement and accommodation 
of tliese distracting questions, which I have to oifer, after having 
bestowed on these subjects the most anxions, intensely anxious, 
consideration ever since I have been in this body. How far it 
mav prove acceptable to both or either of the jiarties on these 
great qnestions, it is not for me to say. I think it ought to be 
acceptable to both. There is no sacrifice of any principle, pro- 
posed in any of them, by either party. The plan is founded 
upon mntnal forbearance, orisrinating in a spirit of reconciliation 
and concession ; not of principles, but of matters of feeling. At 
the North, sir, I know that from feeling, by many at least cher- 
ished as being dictated by considerations of humanity and phi- 
lanthropy, there exists a sentiment adverse to the institution of 
slavery. 

" Sir, I might, I think — although I believe this project con- 
tains about an equal amount of concession and forbearance on 
both sides — have asked from the free States of the North a more 
lil)cral and extensive concession than shonld be asked from the 
slave States. And why, sir ? With you, gentlemen senators of 
the free States, what is it ? An abstraction, a sentiment — a sen- 
timent, if you please, of humanity and philanthropy — a ncble 
sentiment, when directed rightly, with no sinister or party pur- 
poses ; an atrocious sentiment — a detestable sentiment — or rather 
the abuse of it — when directed to the accomplishment of un- 
worthy purposes. I said tiiat I might ask from you larger and 
more expansive concessions than from the slave States. And 
why ? You are numerically more powerful than the slave 
States. Not that there is any dilierence — for upon that subject 
I can not go along with the ardent expression of feeling by some 
of my friends coming from the same class of States from which 
I come — not that there is any ditierence in valor, in prowess, in 
noble and patriotic daring, whenever it is required for the safety 
and salvation of the country, between the people of one class of 
States and those of the other. You are, in point of numbers, 
however, greater ; and greatness and magnanimity should ever 
be alhed. 

" But there are other reasons why concession upon such a sub- 
ject as this should be more liiieral, more expansive, coming from 
the free than from the slave Slates. It is, as 1 remarked, a sen- 
timent, a sentiment of humanity and j)hilantliropy on your side. 
Ay, sir, and when a sentiment of that kind is honestly and earn- 
estly cherished, with a disposition to make sacrifices to enforce 
it, it is a noble and beaulifiil sentiment ; but, sir, when the sac- 
rifice is not to be made by those who cherish that scntimeut and 



OF COJIPROMISR. 123 

inculcate it, but by another people, in whose sitnation it is im- 
possible, from their position, to sympathize and to share all and 
every thing that bcloncrs to tlicm, I must say to yon, senators 
from the free States, it is a totally dillerent question. On your 
side it is a sentiment without sacrifice, a sentiment without 
danger, a sentiment without hazard, without peril, without loss. 
But how is it on the other side, to which, as I have said, a 
greater amount of concession ought to be made in any scheme 
of compromise ? 

" In the first place, sir, there is a vast and incalculable amount 
of property to be sacrificed, and to be sacrificed, not by your 
sharing in the common burdens, but exclusive of you. And 
this is not all. The social intercourse, habit, safetv, property, 
life, every thing is at hazard, in a greater or less degree, in the 
slave States. 

" Sir, look at the storm which is now raging before you, beat- 
ing in all its rage pitilessly on your family. They are in the 
South. But where are your families, where are your people, 
senators from the free States ? They are safely housed, enjoy- 
ing all the blessings of domestic comfort, peace, and quiet, in 
the bosoms of their own families. 

'• Behold, Mr. President, that dwelling-house now wrapped in 
flames. Listen, sir, to the rafters and beams which fall in suc- 
cession, amid the crash ; and the flames ascending higher and 
higher as they tumble down. Behold those women and children, 
who are flying from the calamitous scene, and with their shrieks 
and lamentations imploring the aid of high Heaven. Whose 
house is that r Whose wiv'es and children are they ? Yours in 
the free States ? No. You arc looking on in safety and secur- 
ity, while the conflagration which I have described is raging in 
the slave States, and produced, not intentionally by you, but pro- 
duced from the inevitahle tendency of the measures whicii you 
have adopted, and which others have carried far beyond what 
you have wished. 

'' In the one scale, then, we behold setiment, sentiment, senti- 
ment alone ; in the other property, the social fabric, life, and all 
that makes life desirable and happy. 

" But, sir, I find myself engaged much beyond what I in- 
tended, when I came this morning from my lodgings, in the 
exposition with which I intended these resolutions should go 
forth to the consideration of the world. I can not omit, how- 
ever, before I conclude, relating an incident, a thrilling incident, 
which occurred prior to my leaving my lodgings this morning. 

" A man came to my room — the same at whose instance, a 
few days ago, I presented a memorial calling upon Congress for 
the purchase of Mount Vernon for the use of the public — and, 
without being at all aware of what purpose I entertained in the 
discharge of my public duty to-day, he said to me : ' ^h. Clay, 



124 re:marks. 

» 

I heard yon make a remark the other day, which indnceg me to 
suppose that a precious rehc in my possession wonkl be accept- 
able to yon.' Ho then drew ont of his pocket, and presented to 
me the object which I now hold in my hand. And what, Mr. 
President, do yon snppnse it is? It is a fragment of the coffin 
of Washington — a fragment of that coffin in which now repose 
in silence, in sleep, and speechless, all the earthly remains of the 
venerated Father of his conntry. Was it portentons that it 
slionhl have been thus presented to me ? Was it a sad presage 
of what might happen to that fabric which Washington's virtne, 
patriotism, and valor established ? No, sir, no. It was a warn- 
ing voice, coming from the grave to the Congress now in session 
to beware, to panse, to reflect, before they lend themselves to 
any pnrposes which shall destroy that Union which was cemented 
by his exertions and example. Sir, 1 hope an impression may 
be made on yonr mind such as that which was made on mine by 
the reception of this precions relic. 

'■And, in conclusion, I now ask every senator, I entreat you, 
gentlemen, in fairness and candor, to examine the plan of accom- 
modation which this series of resolutions proposes, and not to 
pronounce against them nntil convinced after a thorough exam- 
ination. T move that the resolutions be read and received." 

Tlie state of the country at this time, and the great complica- 
tion of the questions which had arisen out of the annexation of 
Texas, the Mexican war, and the Treaty of Peace, require some 
further elucidation here, rigluly to apprehend Mr. Clay's resolu- 
tions, and the general subject involved in them. 

First, as to the boundaries of Texas. Texas, at this time, 
claimed to the Rio Grande, and to the 42d degree of north lati- 
tude, absorbing much of the territory comprehended in the Mexi- 
can Departments of Tamanlipas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and 
nearly the whole of New Mexico. Texas had not been able, 
either before or after annexation, to extend her actual jurisdic- 
tion beyond the valley of the Nueces, which falls into the sea at 
Corpus Christi, where General Taylor's army was encamped at 
the time he was ordered to take up liis position on the Rio 
Grande, opposite Matamoras, and whicli was the commencement 
of the war, or of actual hostilities. The occupation of the post 
of Corpus Christi, by the American army, was, apparently, a 
tacit admission that the Nueces was the western border of Texas, 
and of the United States, in that quarter. Such was the opinion 
of the lion. Thomas H. Benton, who argued the point at large, 
by a speech in the Senate of the United States. Texas, before 
annexation, being in a state of war with the Mexican republic, 



REMARKS. 125 

had attempted to reduce the Department of New Mexico, the re- 
sult of which was a disastrous faihu-c. 

But Congress, in its act of justification of tlie commencement 
of the war, had founcj it convenient to declare "that American 
blood hnd been shed on American soil," in the battles of Palo 
Alto and Resaca de la Palma, which, in fact, lay within the 
Mexican Department of Tamaulipas. 'Of course, with this dec- 
laration of -Congress to support her, Texas claimed to the Rio 
Grande. She also claimed- New Mexico, which pushed her 
former northern boundary of the Red River, running nearly on 
the line of the 34th degree of north latitude, to the 42d degree. 
How could Congress refuse to respect those claims, when these 
boundaries followed as a consequence of its declaration of hos- 
tilities against Mexico ? It is true, the declaration by Congress, 
" that American blood was shed on American soil," was a fiction, 
as all know, and the claims of Texas beyond the Nueces, and 
above the 34tli degree of north latitude, were equally without 
foundation. But in relation to the groundless claims of Texas, 
Congress had now to deal with the consequence of its own false 
declaration, and, as will be seen, the latter was a complete vin- 
dication and shield of the former. 

Moreover, when President Polk asked for an appropriation of 
three millions of dollars to make peace with Mexico, the Rep- 
resentatives of the free States were startled at this foreshadow- 
ing of large territorial acquisitions, which, they reasoned, must 
be for the extension of slavery. Hence the Wilmot Proviso, 
that slavery should not be introduced into the territory, acquired 
from Mexico, which passed the House by a large majority, but 
failed to pass the Senate. From that time, though the Wilmot 
Proviso failed to become a law, it has been much used as a po- 
litical test in the free States, in all the Congressional elections. 
Its beginning, and popular use since that time, constitute a great 
chapter of history. It will be a long time before it will cease to 
ring in the ears of the public. It can never cease, till the ques- 
tion of slavery ceases to be a political question, in the organiza- 
tion of new Territories and new States. 

It happened, also, that General Taylor, now President of the 

'United States, although a Southern man and a slaveholder, did 

not favor the claims of Texas over New jNIexico, and there was 

imminent danger of an armed collision between the State of 

Texas and the United States. 



126 REMARKS. 

All these, and other difficulties arising out of these questions, 
were to be encountered in the resolutions of Compromise pro- 
posed by Mr. Clay. Although the third resolution defined the 
western boundary of Texas in coincidence, with her claims, it 
gave her no part of New Mexico. 

This feature of the resolution, brought Mr. Rusk, of Texas, at 
once to his feet, when Mr. Clay sat down, and he said : — 



" I do not intend, Mr. President, to enter into this discussion 
[now?], and I rise simply for the purpose of saying that I regret 
extremely that the distinguished senator from Kentucky, in his 
laudable desire to settle a very troublesome question, now agitat- 
ing the people of the United States, should have seen proper, 
rather unceremoniously, as I think, to take one half of the terri- 
tory of the State I have the honor, in part, here to represent, to 
make a peace-offering to a spirit of encroachment on the consti- 
tutional rights of one half of this Union. * * * Does not the 
honorable senator know that, appended to the treaty with ^Nlexi- 
co, of which he speaks, signed and sealed by the Commissioners 
who negotiated it, and expressly made a part of the treaty, 
there is a map which defines all the territory east of the Rio 
Grande and to the 42d degree of north latitude, as Texas, and 
that the territory west of that river is expressly designated as 
New Mexico ? Tlie boundary thus defined is made a part of 
the treaty itself, and no fair interpretation can permit any body 
to assume a different one." 

This map, doubtless, originated at Washington, and it may be 
regarded as part of the general plan. Since the Rio Grande was 
to be the boundary between the United States and Mexico, up 
to a certain point, it was of no consequence to Mexico under 
what jurisdiction the territory between the Rio Grande and the 
Nueces should fall. It was, therefore, no part of the treaty. It 
was known that Texas claimed to the Rio Grande, and the color- 
ing of the map, as if Texas extended to that line, might have 
been accidental, or it might have been an arbitrary order from 
Washington. It is clear that Mexico had nothing to do witli it, 
and that she could be no fmther interested than as a j)arty in 
fLxing the boundary line between herself and the United States. 
It is immaterial, therefore, whether the drawer of the map, as a 
matter of convenience, carried out Texas to the Rio Grande, not 
knowing wliat other disposition to make of that territory, or 
whether he had his orders for a future political purpose, Mexico, 



REMARKS. 127 

as a party to the treaty, could have had no voice in it, as it 
could not have been a matter of treaty stipulation. 

Mr. Foote, of IMississippi, also rose, to protest against the 5th 
and 6th resolutions, as implying that Congress had power to 
legislate on slavery in the District of Columbia ; and he did not 
agree with Mr. Clay that " slavery does not now exist by law in 
any of the territory acquired from Mexico ;" nor that it was ex- 
pedient for Congress to make any declaration on that point ; nor 
in the jn'oposed boundaries of Texas : nor in assuming the debt 
of Texas, in the manner proposed ; although he did approve of 
the proposal to enact an efficient law for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, and would not object to the admission of California, as a 
free State into the Union, if, at the same time, another slave 
State could be set off from Texas. 

Although Mr. Clay had expressed the hope, that no debate 
would arise on his proposed resolutions at this time, he felt 
obliged to say a few words in reply to Mr. Rusk and Mr. Foote, 
which he did, but which we do not think it necessary to cite. 

Mr. Mason, of Virginia, could assent to only one of the prop- 
ositions of Mr. Clay, which is embodied in the second part of 
the second resolution, regarding the organization of Territorial 
governments. From all the rest he dissented ; and he spoke 
somewhat at length in a statement of his views. He would ac- 
cept of nothing less than the extension of the Missouri Com- 
promise line to the Pacific. So also ^Tr. Foote. 

]\L'. Clay said : " I am reminded of my coming from a slave 
State. I tell the senator from Mississippi [Mr. Foote], and I 
tell the senator from Virginia [^Ir. Mason], that I know my 
duty, and that I mean to express the opinions I entertain fearless 
of all mankind. * * * And now. sir. coming from a slave State 
as I do, 1 owe it to myself, I ov/e it to truth, I owe it to the sub- 
ject, to say that no earthly power could induce me to vote for a 
specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had not 
before existed, either south or north of the Missouri Compromise 
line. Coming as I do from a slave State, it is my solemn, de- 
liberate, and well-matured determination that no power, no 
earthly power, shall compel me to vote for the positive introduc- 
tion of slavery, either south or north of that line. Sir, while 
you reproach, and justly too, our British ancestors for the intro- 
duction of this institution upon the continent of America, I am, 
for one, unwilling that the posterity of the present inhabitants 



128 REMARKS. 

of California or New ^Mexico shall reproach us for doing just 
what we reproach Great Britain for doing to us. If the citizens 
of those Territories choose to establish slavery, and if they come 
here with constitutions establishing slavery, I am for admitting 
them with such provisions in their constitutions ; but then it 
will be their own work and not ours ; and their posterity will ' 
have to reproach them and not us, for forming constitutions 
allowing the institution of slavery to exist among them. These 
are my views, sir, and I choose to express them ; and I care not 
how extensively or universally they are known." 

IVIr. Davis of Mississippi, Mr. Downs of Louisiana, Mr. Berrien 
of Georgia, and Mr. Butler of South Carolina, declared them- 
selves not satisfied with Mr. Clay's resolutions. Mr. Davis 
thought it was no compromise at all, as the concessions required, 
he said, were all on the part of the South, and none from the 
North ; and this seemed to be the general feeling of Senators 
from the slaveholding States. There was, therefore, in the out- 
set, but little promise of the final adoption of Mr. Clay's resolu- 
tions in their original form. They were made the special order 
of the day for the Tuesday following. 

As may be supposed, the Senate chamber, on this occasion, 
was thronged with spectators, to hear Mr. Clay's resolutions pro- 
pounded, and his accompanying remarks upon them. It was 
unexpected that so much of a debate should have arisen that 
day ; but many senators from the South claimed that their dis- 
sent should go forth to the pubhc in company with the publica- 
tion of jMr. Clay's plan of compromise. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 185 0. 

Review of ilr. Clay's great Speech on his Compromise Resolutions. — Mr. Clay's 
Project for the gradual Abolition of Slavery in the State of Kentucky. — Extract 
from Mr. Clay's Will. 

We know not how we can better commence this chapter than 
by the following letter, and the introductory remarks of the 
Albany Register of August 6, 1852, in which the letter was first 
published : 

" The letter of the Rev. Dr. Van Arsdale to Hon. Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, which we have the privilege of publishing this 
morning, will be read with the deepest interest by all the friends 
of the great departed patriot. It adds to the long catalogue an- 
other glorious illustration of the noble disinterestedness which 
actuated his mighty heart whenever it was moved for the Repub- 
lic which he loved so devotedly and adorned so brightly. It 
displays the self-sacrificing spirit of the true patriot, at a moment 
at once the most interesting in his long life of invaluable public 
services, and one of the most critical in the history of the coun- 
try. If any thing could add to the imperishable fame of Henry 
Clay, or more firmly attach the grateful hearts of his country- 
men to his memory, it is the episode in his life which Mr. Van 
Arsdale so graphically relates, and which sheds a bright ray upon 
his brilliantly-illuminated descent to the grave which has just 
closed over him." 



" FROM THE UEV. DR. VAN ARSDALE TO THE HON. THEODORE FRELINGHLTSEN. 

"Manor Hocse, Albany, August 2, 1852. 

" Hon. and dear Siu — In reading your eulogy of our lamented 
Mr. Clay, which has just met my attention, I observed the follow- 
ing sentence in relation to his last great effort for the country he 
so truly loved — the efibrt in which he brought forth his celebrated 



130 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Compromise measures — measures which are now siiljstantinlly 
incorporated into the platform of both the prominent pohtical 
parties — and which, under a kind Providence, were the means 
of adjusting difficulties and heahng sectional strifes that seriously- 
threatened to disturb our national peace, if not to break up the 
Union itself. 

"You justly remark: 'In the good Providence of God, jVIr. 
Clay was again called to soothe irritations and persuade to recon- 
cilement the councils of Congress, and through them the Ameri- 
can people. God crowned his labors with prosperity. He was 
spared to rejoice in the privilege and honor of a third glorious 
achievement — the triumph of fraternal good will over the angry 
passions of our fallen nature, and the Union lives again in its 
strength to cherish and animate the hopes of the world. And 

HAVING FULFILLED THIS DUTY OF ANXIOUS AND WEARING TOIL FOR 
HIS COUNTRY, THE HONORED PATRIOT LAID DOWN TO DIE, AND PRE- 
CIOUS WILL BE HIS MEMORY TO THE END OF TIME.' 

" Now, sir, there was an incident connected with that last great 
effort of Mr. Clay — the delivery of his Compromise speech — 
with which I only am acquainted, and which strilringly illus- 
trates the truth of your statement, and the purity and strength 
of his patriotism. On the morning when he commenced that 
speech, so highly serviceable to our country's good, 1 walked 
with him from his lodgings at the National Hotel to the Senate 
Chamber. He was sullcriug, as he said, with a severe cold, and 
was very feeble. As we came to the long liight of steps at the 
Capitol, he said : ' Will you lend me your arm, my friend ; for I find 
myself quite weak and exhausted this morning ?' Of course I gave 
him my arm, and we commenced the ascent. Every few steps, 
however, we were obliged to stop for him to take breath, and he 
also coughed severely. We went round by the back way, as he 
said It was less fatiguing to him. He had told me that he in- 
tended to speak that morning on that subject ; but wiieu we 
arrived at the Senate Chamber, finding him so much indisposed, I 
said : ' Mr. Clay, had you not better defer your speech ? You are 
certainly too ill to exert yourself to-tlay.' 'My dear friend,' he 
replied, ' / consider our country in clanger, and if I can he the 
means in any measure of averting that danger, my health or 
life is of little consequence.'' 

" Such was the spirit of this noble-minded, this Ciu'islian pa- 
triot ! When we entered the Senate Chamber it was already 
crowded with spectators, botli ladies and gentlemen ; for it was 
known that Isle. Clay was to speak. After the preliminary exer- 
cises of the morning, he arose in his place and commenced his 
address. Those who were present will remember that when he 
began it was very evident that he was not well, and they will 
also remember how soon his majestic and patriotic spirit kindled 
into burning eloquence, and rose above the infirmities of his 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 131 

body, as he spoke of the dangers which threatened the perpetu- 
ity of the T^nion ; they \vi\\ remember how his Hps quivered and 
his thrilhiiff voice faltered with the generous emotions of a de- 
voted Christian patriot, when lie said that, having first home that 
subject on his heart before God 'in his chamber,' he now came 
to present it to the Senate. For two days he continued to oc- 
cupy the floor, and chained the attention of his nnmeions and 
admiring auditors. Those who had often heard him in the 
meridian of his strength, told me that he had never spoken with 
greater energy, both of Uiought and manner. Included in Iiis 
devotion to God, was his devotion to his country. Every faculty 
was absorbed with, and every power consecrated to its welfare. 
His object was gained. Harmony was restored. The country 
was saved. But the manly form of the noble statesman sank 
beneath the mighty effort which his patriotism inspired, and it 
now sleeps with the dead. When his corpse arrived in Phila- 
delphia, in a brief conversation with some of the committee of 
the Senate who were attending it to its place of rest, General 
Cass remarked to me, that ' Mr. Clay never recovered from the 
effect of the exertion he then tnade, and he had no doubt it had 
hastened his death.'' Yet, with reason himself to apprehend 
such would be the effect, Mr. Clay put forth his mightiest eflort to 
preserve the Union ; and thus closed his long and brilliant career 
by sacrificijig himself to his country. He forgot himself in his 
greater love for his native land. This was true patriotism. 
Well then may all parties mourn his loss, and .hold 'his memory 
precious to the end of time.' 

" As an additional tribute to this great and good man, whom 
it has been my privilege for several years past to know well and 
sincerely to love, and as revealing with an additional ray of light 
that example so worthy of all imitation, I have been induced to 
relate the above incident. " C. Cornell Van Arsdale." 

It was the sixth of February, 1850, when the Rev. Dr. Van 
Arsdale accompanied Mr. Clay to the Senate Chamber, as above 
described, and when he commenced that great speech of two 
days, on the resolutions of Compromise, presented by him on 
the 29th of January, 1850, as set forth in the preceding chapter. 
His state of health is mournfully depicted in the letter above 
cited. One can easily see that he was altogether too feeble to 
undertake such a mighty effort. He could not mount the steps 
of the Capitol without leaning on the arm of the Reverend Doc- 
tor, and stopping to rest. His great heart and lofty mind had 
communed with his Maker, and laid the theme of this and the 
next day's discourse before the throne of heaven. For his exor- 
dium opens thus : 



132 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

'' Mr. President — Never, on any former occasion, have I risen 
under feelings of such painful solicitude. I have seen many 
periods of great anxiety, peril, and of danger, in this country ; 
but I have never before risen to address any assemblage so op- 
pressed, so appalled, and so anxious. And, sir, 1 hope it will not 
be out of place to do here what again and again I have done in 
my private chamber, to implore of Him who holds the destinies 
of nations and of individuals in his hands to bestow upon our 
country his blessing, to calm the violence and rage of party, to 
still passion, to allow reason once mqre to resume its empire. 
And may I not ask of Him, too, sir, to bestow on his humble 
servant now before Him, the blessing of his smiles, and of 
strength and ability to j^erform the work that now lies before 
him?" 

This speech will be found entire in the Appendix,* to which 
the reader is not only referred, but he is recommended to peruse 
it before he takes up the review of it contained in this chapter. 
Though long (it occupied two full days in its delivery), it occu- 
pies too important a part of Mr. Clay's history at this period, not 
to be put down as a portion of it. It was his last great public 
effort, though he afterward mingled somewhat in the debates of 
the Senate. The influence which it had on the great pacifica- 
tion that followed before this session of Congress had come to a 
close, is undisputed, although Mr. Clay's resolutions were' not in 
form adopted. While the subject was in debate, on the 14th of 
February, Mr. Clay said : 

*' My idea was, if the Senate should think proper finally to 
decide aflirmativcly on these resolutions, that we should then re- 
fer them to appropriate committees, either one resolution by itself 
to an appropriate committee, or combining two or three together, 
according to the atiinity of the subjects they embrace, and let 
the committee act on these two or three subjects, lint I never 
did contemplate embracing in the entire scheme of accommoda- 
tion and harmony which 1 proposed, all these distracting ques- 
tions, and bringing them all into one measure," 

His resolutions and his vindication of them, set the ball in 
motion, which rolled on to the accomplishment of a great result. 
It was impossible to stop, and equally impossible to evade the 
great questions which Mr. Clay had started. His resolutions 
might and did encounter opposition, and they were not aflirmed 
by the Senate, as Mr. Clay hoped they would be. But they 

* Appendix, A page 301. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 133 

were there in a palpable and nnmistakable form, and they were 
aimed directly at the actual state of the coiuitry, so that their 
bearings could not be misinterpreted. The purity and patriotism 
of ]Mr. Clny's motives in this movement were highly appreciated, 
and frequently acknowledged by his political opponents. In- 
deed he scarcely had an opponent, except of his resolutions. 
So fully were all impressed with the patriotic aims of Mr. Clay, 
that they rendered involuntary homage to his heart. Ii was 
seen and felt that nothing but a love of country could have in- 
duced him to expose himself to such a sacrifice, in making such 
an effort in such a state of health. His devout exordium made 
its appeal and had its influence, as no man living suspected Mr. 
Clay of religious insincerity. It was unexpected, doubtless ; 
but every one felt how appropriate it was. It required no small 
degree of religious bravery to do a thing so rare in such circum- 
stances. There again was the man. It was Mr. Clay, who 
feared not man, but who then professed to fear God, and to 
believe in him. With so little fear of man, it was no great vir- 
tue in Mr^ Clay to break forth in such aspirations, except as they 
came from the profoundest convictions and sentiments of his 
heart, as no one doubted they did. It was, therefore, so much 
more effective. 

Mr. Clay attributed the unhappy state of the country to the 
violence of party spirit, and deprecated it in the most feeling 
manner. "Mr. President, it is passion, passion — party, party, 
and intemperance — that is all I dread in the adjustment of the 
great questions which unhappily at this time divide our dis- 
tracted country." He considered the question of slavery, as it 
divided the North from the South, most difficult of adjustment. 
Hence all his studies and eflorts were directed to that. As wdl 
be seen, each one of his eight resolutions had an aspect in that 
direction, except the first. 

California had already organized as a State, fixed her own 
boundaries, and put her State machinery in operation — an nrcg- 
ularity doubtless — for according to fundamental law she was 
nothing more than a part of the territory of the United States, 
and subject to Federal law as such. She could not regularly 
move to an organization as a Stale without the consent and 
under the direction of a law of Congress. But, conscious of 
her physical and political position on the Pacific coast, of her 
sudden and rapid growth to power and importance, and relying 



134 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

on her prospective resources as the land of gold, she put on the 
airs of dictating the terms on which she would become a State 
of the Union, rather than of asking leave to join the family, and 
to be regularly inaugurated. It was a natural thought of the 
time and circumstances, both to the CaUfornians and to the 
Federal Government, that if not humored in the attitude she had 
assumed, California might become the head of a western con- 
federacy, bounded on the east by the backbone of the Conti- 
nent, on the north by the British provinces, and destined to 
absorb Mexico on the south. This dream had doubtless already 
entertained the imaginations of California political aspirants, and 
the thought was, doubtless, a sufficient admonition to the Fed- 
eral authorities to wink at these irregularities in the formation of 
the State Government of California. The attitude of California 
— though not declared as such, was : '' Take us in or not as you 
please ; we have nothing to ask as a favor.-' This, undoubtedly, 
was the position and temper of California at this moment, and it 
was a matter for Congress to decide upon at this session. 

But to those who had made the war with Mexico, it was not 
only a great disappointment, but, so far, a complete subversion 
of their plans, if Mr. Clay's interpretation of it in his Raleigh 
Letter was correct, viz., that the war was made for the ex- 
tension of slavery. California, by her constitution, had excluded 
slavery, and she presented herself to Congress, not in the attitude 
of supplication, to be permitted to organize as a State, but as an 
independent State already organized. By her admission, with- 
out at the same time admitting a slave State, the balance of 
power in the Senate of the United States, where alone it can 
be maintained, as between the free and slave States, would be 
turned in favor of the free States; as the latter, in that case, 
would be one State in the majority in that body. In the House 
of Representatives, it was well known that the free States M-ere 
always in the majority. It seemed, therefore, to be a crisis. 
You must admit California, with all her unbecoming airs, and 
with all this irregularity, or have a western confederacy ; then, 
perha])s, a civil war ; and a civil war in all probability could 
only end in a western confederacy. 

Mr. Clay, therefore, in his anxious endeavor, was obliged to 
encounter the aspects of this state of things. Nothing was more 
evident than that California must be treated with resj;ect, and 
her demand, in substance, acceded to. This was the pohit of 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 135 

the first resolution, leaving the exact boundaries of the State of 
California as an open question. All that Mr. Clay desired by 
this and the other resolutions, was the determination of princi- 
ples, not of the details of their application. He did not pretend 
to bring in a bill or bills as projects of law. He only wanted 
the affirmation of certain principles which he thought the exi- 
gences of the country demanded, and which could afterward be 
incorporated in the forms of law, as the cases might require, in 
separate bills adapted to the several cases. 

It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose, as some have hastily 
done, that Mr. Clay's resolutions on this occasion were a failure, 
because they were not immediately and specifically affirmed and 
adopted. The resolutions were entering wedges, the power of 
which, driven by Mr. Clay's hand, could not be evaded. The 
then session of Congress could not and did not rise till they 
were substantially disposed of. They might and did occupy a 
long time for debate ; they might and did appear in dilTerent 
forms ; but there was no escape from them. Only one of them, 
the 'second, failed to be acted upon definitely during this ses- 
sion ; and the reason of that we shall see by and by. Mr. Clay, 
therefore, stands in history as the prime mover of the great 
pacification of 1850. No one, therefore, can claim to understand 
that important part of the history of this country who has not 
attentively read those resolutions of Mr. Clay and his introduc- 
tory remarks, as found in the preceding chapter, in connection 
with his great speech on those resolutions, as found in the ap- 
pendix to this volume. These together constitute the last great 
effort of Mr. Clay's public life. 

The admission of California as a State was naturally the first 
topic, and one which could in no way be evaded. It was, in- 
deed, a sore disappointment to those who had brought on the 
Mexican war for the extension of slavery, to find the first State 
formed out of the territory acquired, herself of vast dimensions, 
vigorous, increasing in population beyond example, her soil and 
mountains rich in gold, and well adapted to agriculture, exclud- 
ing slavery from her fundamental law ! And that the admission 
of California into the Union, which must be done at this lime or 
never, should destroy the balance of power between the slave 
and free States, in favor of the latter, in the Senate of the United 
States, was another stupendous political result, not less astound- 
ing to the slave propagandists ! 



136 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Having disposed of tlie first resolution, regarding the admission 
of California, Mr. Clay passed to the second, which was in sub- 
stance,* that slavery had been abolished in the Republic of IMexi- 
co, and that consequently, on the principles of public law, the 
territory acquired from Mexico by the United States, was free 
territory. On the recognition of this great fact, Mr. Clay pro- 
posed, as a compromise between the North and South, that 
territorial governments should be established by Congress over 
this broad field, '•' without any restriction or condition on the 
subject of slavery," and leave that question with the people, 
when States should be formed out of those territories. It can 
not but be seen, however, that the recognition of this great and 
broad principle, that the territories acquired from Mexico were 
free, in consequence of the abolition of slavery by the Republic 
of Mexico, gave the advantage to freedogi as opposed to the sys- 
tem of slavery : inasmuch as the normal condition of those ter- 
ritories was that they were free, and that slavery could never be 
established in them, till it should be done by the fundamental 
law of a State, or by Congress, which last was not likely to be 
done. 

It is to be noticed, also, that Mr. Clay proposed to declare in 
this resolution, that slavery " is not likely to be introduced into 
the territory acquired by the United States from the Republic 
of Mexico," and that he makes .this an important point in his 
speech. On the basis of these " two truths,"as he thought him- 
self entitled to call them, to wit, that " slav^ery does not exist by 
law" ill the acquired territory, and that it is not likely to be in- 
troduced there — the first of which certainly was a fact, though 
the latter was hypothetical — Mr. Clay appeals to the representa- 
tives of the free States, as a concession to the South, to abandon 
the principle of the Wilmot proviso, as being of no avail, even 
if it could be carried. That proviso, it will be remembered, 
aimed to legislate definitiv^cly against the introduction of slavery 
in any of the territories acquired from Mexico, and it was carried 
in the House of Representatives, by a decisive majority, when 
President Polk called upon Congress for $3,000,000, with which 
to make a peace with Mexico ; but the proviso failed in the 
Senate. The principle of this proviso took a strong hold of the 
public mind in the free States. 

* See the resolutiou, page 115. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 137 

« "VYhnt do yon, who reside in the free States, want ?" said Mr. 
Clay. " Yon want that there shall be no slavery introdnced into 
the territories acquired from Mexico. Well, have you not got it 
in California already, if admitted as a State ? Have you not got 
it also in New Mexico, in all human probability? What more 
do you want ? You have got what is worth a thousand Wilmot 
provisos. You have got nature itself on yoin- side. You have 
the fact itself on your side. You have the truth staring you in 
the face, that no slavery is existing there. Well, if you are men, 
if you can rise from the nmd and slough of party struggles, and 
elevate yourselves to the height of patriots, what will you do ? 
You will loolc at the fact as it exists." 

In Mr. Clay's mind and feelings, there was a fair compromise 
between the North and South, in this resolution. It declares 
that slavery does not exist by law in the acquired territories, and 
that nature forbids its being introduced there. The first part of 
Mr. Clay's second resolution is, as will be seen, tlie declaration 
of a fact, determined by the principles of Public Law, to which 
Mr. Clay, no doubt, gave the true interpretation. But as it de- 
pended on interpretation, it could hardly have more force than 
an opinion. The second declaration, that slavery was not likely 
to be introduced in those territories, was also a matter of opinion, 
which Mr. Webster afterward, in his seventh of March speech, 
uttered with great force. The South was not prepared to affirm 
either of these declarations, and the North did not confide in 
them. The South objected to the doctrine of the fiist declara- 
tion, and the North would not trust to either, but demanded the 
Wilmot proviso. Hence this resolution failed. But it was a 
sufficient triumph for Mr. Clay that the principle of each of his 
resolutions was incorporated in subsequent legislation. 

Nevertheless, the second resolution, as a matter of record, in 
the jilace which it occupies in history, as having been proposed 
by Mr. Clay on this occasion, has had, and will ever have, about 
. the same effect which would have followed from its affirmation 
by the Senate of the United States. It announced a great prin- 
ciple of far higher authority than that of the United States Senate 
— a principle of Public Law — a principle which will be recog- 
nized by all mankind, and which can not ultimately fail of its 
effect in the specific application which ]Mr. Clay proposed to 
make of it. It is a historical fact, that the Republic of Mexico 
had abolished slavery, and that when peace was concluded be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, slavery did not exist in the 



138 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

territories acquired by the United States, consequently, slavery 
can not go there, except as estabUshed in the fundamental law 
of a new State, or by a special act of Congress, the latter of 
which will not. in any linman probability, ever be perpetrated. 
In theory, however, though not v/ith a view to a practical appli- 
cation, Mr. Clay asserts the principle, that the general and un- 
limited power over the territories of the United States given to 
Congress by the Constitution, comprehends that of establishing 
slavery in the territories. Hence the power of Congress over 
slavery in the District of Columbia, to retain, or modify, or 
abolish it at discretion. Mr. Clay thinks that the power of Con- 
gress to abolish slavery in the territories, implies the power to 
establish it, and that the two powers are necessarily co-existent. 

Mr. Clay had occasion to expose the absurdity of the doctrine, 
that the Constitution of the United States carries the right to 
hold slaves along A\illi it into the territories. "Why," said Mr. 
Clay, " these United States consist of thirty States. In fifteen 
of them there is slavery, and in fifteen of them slavery does not 
exist. Well, how can it be argued that the fil'teen slave States, 
by the operation of the Constitution of the United States, carry 
into tlie ceded territory their institution of slavery, any more 
than it can be argued, on the other side, that by the operation 
of the same Constitution, the fifteen free States carry into the 
ceded tcnitjory the principle of freedom, which they from policy 
have chcsen to adopt within their limits? * * * Is tliere not 
just as much ground to contend, that where a moiety of the 
States is free, and the other moiety is slaveholding, the principle 
of freedom which prevails in one class, shall operate as much as 
the principle of slavery which [jrevails in the other? Can you 
come to any other conclusion than that which I understand to 
be the conclusion of the Public Law of the M'orld, of reason, and 
justice, that the stains of law, as it existed in the moment of 
conquest or the acquisition, remains until it is altered by the 
sovereign authority of the conquering or acquiring power? That 
is the great princijile which you can scarcely turn over a page of 
the Public Law of the world without finding recognized, and 
every where established." 

Nevertheless, there is a specious argument of the slaveholder. 
He says he is a citizen of the United States, and lias a right to 
his pro])erly any where. As an abstract proposition, this would 
seem to be clear and undeniable. But it is already decided by 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 139 

the common law of the civilized world, that if he carries his 
slave into a free State, that slave is free. This question, there- 
fore, is not debatahle, but it is settled forever. . But the slave- 
holder says, he can take his slave into any territory of the United 
States, and hold him as property under the Federal Constitution. 
But the Federal Constitution recognizes slavery only in the slave 
States. There is no law, therefore, Federal or municipal, that 
will i)rolcct the property of a slaveholder in iiis slave, in any 
territory of the United States, except in the District of Columbia. 
The reason is obvious. Slavery is not the creature of Federal 
laws, nor of the Federal Constitution ; neither can it be created 
by territorial laws ; but only by the fundamental law of a State ; 
and its protection as property can only be secured by the mu- 
nicipal regulations of slave States. Slave property, in the United 
States certainly, is exceptional. It is not proi)erty every where, 
in free States, for example, except the slave be a fugitive, and 
there is no law by which a slave can be held as property in any 
of the territories of the United States,, except in the District of 
Columbia. Where is the law? It can not be found. The 
Federal Constitution and laws recognize slave property in slave 
States, and in the District of Columbia ; but nowhere else.* The 
slaveholder may, doubtless, carry his slave property into the ter- 
ritories; but he does it at his own risk. There is no law there, 
or elsewhere, which he can invoke to protect it. The slaveholder 
may say, and he doubtless feels, that this is unjust. But if he 
looks at the subject, apart from his interest in the question, he 
must see that we have laid down the rule correctly. 

The sum of the matter is, that property in man, such as slave 
property, is against the opinion and sentiments of mankind, and 
against the genius of all free institutions. The common law of 
England, as promulged in the famous Somerset case, and which 
has been adopted by the free States of America — adopted, indeed, 
by the civilized world — has decided against the holding of prop- 
erty in man, such as slave property; and such ju'operty can 
only be held under special regulations, such as exist in the United 
States, and that only for the limited jurisdictions specified. Out- 
side of those jurisdictions, there is, and can be, no property in 
man, except he be a fugitive slave. Freedom, as opposed to 
property in man, is the rule — is common law — and slavery is the 
exception. Slavery can only exist under special regulations; 
* The law of 1854, changes the case. 



140 THE C03rPROMI5E OF 1850. 

as, on account of the peculiar circumstances in which slavery- 
was introduced and found here, when the Federal compact was 
formed, it was made a special case, and placed under exceptional 
rules, which apply to no other species of property. Consequently, 
these exceptional regulations can only be invoked for the protec- 
tion of slave property where that property is recognized as such. 
All must see that the Federal Constitution does not recognize 
slave property, except when the fundamental law of States and 
their municipal regulations have established it. Consequently, 
Federal jiower can not be invoked to protect such property, ex- 
cept when it exists under the municipal laws of particular States. 
He v^ho owns slaves, or chooses to be connected with slavery, 
occupies this position with a full knowledge of the fact that his 
slave property is not property every where ; and it is his own 
fault if he does not comprehend all the exceptions of the case, 
one of which is, that he can no more hold a slave as property in 
any of the Territories of the United States, except in the District 
of Col imbia, than in one of the free States. Where is the law 
by which he can hold such property, in such a place ? There 
is none. In vain will he invoke Federal power : for it does not 
apply tc the case. In vain will he invoke the authorities of the 
slave State from which he emigrated ; for her authority extends 
not beyond her own jurisdiction. He may, perhaps, hold and 
control this species of property by sutFerance, or by the ignorance 
of those around him ; but there is no other tenure. 

The position of slave property in the United States is a very 
simple oiie. and it never ought to occasion a moment's debate. 
Its guaranty is special, not common. It is an exceptional case 
of property held under a special tenure. We have only to as- 
certain the rules of the case, and it is all before us. What are 
those rules? In the first place, the Federal Constitution recog- 
nizes the right, in the original slave States, to the institution of 
slavery, and the right to regulate .it. Next, the slave Stales are 
allowed to count their slaves five for three, to be represented in 
Congress. Thirdly, the slave States are entitled to the piotec- 
tion oi the Federal Government, in case of a slave insurrection. 
And fourthly, the slave States are entitled to the aid of the Federal 
Govennnent (ov the recovery of fugitive slaves. All the slave 
States admitted into the Union, have been placed on the same 
footing. These four items comprehend all the law there is on 
the subject of slavery, so far as the General Government is con- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 141 

cerned. All the rest is left with the municipal regulations of the 
slave States. And snrely it can hardly require any great stretch 
of the human faculties to comprehend this. 

The position of slavery in the United States, in relation to 
general society, is very like that of the federal Constitution in 
relation to the sovereignty of the States. In the latter case, 
whatever powers are not delegated to the General Government 
by the Constitution, are reserved to the States. The General 
Government can exercise no other than its delegated powers. 
In the same manner, the institution of slavery in the United 
States, can claim no more than the special grants made to it. 
All other powers belong to general society. The institution of 
slavery is exceptional, and its rights are specific, not general. 
Nothing can be claimed for it but that which is specifically 
granted. It is enough for the slaveholding States, and all they 
ask, we suppose, that they are sovereign in their respective juris- 
dictions, and that no power, foreign to themselves, has a right to 
interfere with their municipal regulations on the subject of 
slavery. 

Of course, Mr. Clay is not to be regarded as responsible for the 
thoughts above recorded on this subject, although they are natur- 
ally suggested by his argument. As will be seen by reading his 
speech in the appendix, he came broadly on the ground of the 
position occupied by slavery in general society, and if we mistake 
not, he has defined it substantially as we have, in his argument 
on the second resolution, though not in like terms and phraseol- 
ogies. We have aimed to show, that the normal condition of 
American society is freedom as opposed to a system of slavery, 
and that a system of slavery is exceptional. We think this is 
Ml-. Clay's doctrine. But Mi-. Clay intended to be fair to the 
slave States, on the ground of the Federal Constitution. He 
would defend and vindicate their rights, as secured by that in- 
strument, even by the sword as a last resort, as he says in his 
speech. But he would not surrender the great principle, that 
freedom as opposed to property in man, is the normal condition 
of civilized society, more especially of American society. 

On the third and fourth resolutions, which relate to the west- 
ern and northern boundaries of Texas, and the compensation to 
be given to Texas for a surrender of a portion of her territorial 
claims, the argument of Mr. Clay will well repay an attentive 
perusal. These resolutions were alike a compromise between 



142 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

the North and South, and between the United States and Texas 
— between the two former parties, as on the principles of the 
second resohition, the boundaries specified conceded less to free- 
dom than the North demanded, and less to slavery than the South 
demanded ; and between the United States and Texas, as an 
ample compensation to Texas for the suiTender of a portion of 
her claim, was contemplated, and which afterward, on motion 
of Mr. Clay, was fixed at $10,000,000, of which $5,000,000 
were to be appropriated to the payment of the debts of Texas. 
This grant was largely in excess of the estimJite of the Texas 
senators, for filling out the blank, which they said could not be 
less than $3,000,000. But Mr. Clay not only desired to make 
Texas a liberal offer, but to secure a cheerful acceptance of it. 
Texas, with all her debts assumed by the United States, with at 
least $5,000,000 in her treasury, and with a broad public domain 
of great value, constantly augmenting, may be regarded in con- 
sequence of this arrangement, as perhaps the richest State in 
the Union. The aim of the third and fourth resolutions, there- 
fore, was a compromise all round the circle of parties concerned 
in it, and in substance it finally prevailed. 

At the close of Mr. Clay's remarks on the third and fourth 
resolutions, it was observed that his strength was very much 
exhausted, and on motion of Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, the Senate 
adjourned to the next day. 

February the 6th^ Mr. Clay resumed his speech with the fol- 
lowing exordium : " Mr. President, if there be in this vast assem- 
bly of beauty, grace, elegance, and intelligence, any who have 
come here under the expectation that the humble individual who 
now addresses you means to attempt any display, any use of 
ambitious language, any extraordinary ornament or decoration 
of speech, they will be utterly disappointed. The season of the 
year, and my own season of life, both admonish me to abstain 
from any such ornaments; and above all, ]Mr. President, the 
awful subject upon which it is my duty to address the Senate 
and the country, forbids my saying any thing but what pertains 
strictly to that subject, and my sole desire is to make myself in 
seriousness, soberness, and plainness, understood by you, and by 
those who think proper to listen to me." 

Although modesty is always an accompaniment of true great- 
ness, it was quite unnecessary for Mr. Clay to make an apology 
for his plainness of speecli. It was never by ornate diction that 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 143 

Mr. Clay excited admiration, for lie never attempted it. It was 
the man as known in all history, his fame, his sincerity in which 
every one helieved, his deep convictions so eloquently betrayed 
whenever he rose to speak, his perfect mastery of language to 
express his thoughts, his personal dignity so impressive and com- 
manding, his deferential manner so natural to him, his manly 
attitudes, the naturalness and pertinency of his action whenever 
he emploj^ed any, the grace and elegance of the tout ensemble 
of his manner, and withal, at this time, the weight of years that 
pressed upon him — these all constituted the charm, of which he 
himself was totally unconscious, that held a listening Senate, and 
a vast and variegated audience captive to his simple, but great 
endeavor. 

After occupying a few moments in some remarks explanatory 
of a part of his argument the day before, IMr. Clay proceeded to 
the consideration of his fifth resolution, regarding slavery in the 
District of Columbia, where again he was forced to encounter a 
strong Southern and a strong Northern feeling. The resolution, 
as will be seen, consists of three parts, '•' that it is inexpedient to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, while that institution 
continues to exist in the State of Maryland, without the consent 
of that State, without the consent of the people of the District, 
ahd without just compensation to the owners of slaves within the 
District." The object of this resolution was twofold, first, to 
set at rest agitation in the free States on the subject of abolishing 
slavery in the District of Cokunbia ; and next, to prepare the 
way for the sixth resolution, which contemplated the abolition 
of the slave-trade in the District. Fiu'ther, it may also be said 
that the fifth resolution contemplated a mutual concession from 
the North and South, as the latter would not allow that Congress 
had the power to abolish slavery in the District, while the former 
not only advocated the power, but was constantly pouring in 
petitions for Congress to exercise it. 

When this resolution was first read on the 29th of January, 
the South started to its feet immediately, and demanded that the 
word " unconstitutional"' should be substituted for " inexpedient," 
etc. This brought Mr. Clay out flat on the question of constitu- 
tional power: "I said the other day, as I have uniformly main- 
tained iu this body, as I contended in 1S3S, and ever have done, 
that the power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia 
has been vested in Congress by language too clear and explicit 



144 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

to admit, in my judgment, of any rational doubt whatever: ' To 
exercise exclusive jurisdiction, in all cases whatsoever, over the 
District,' etc. Now, sir, Congress, by this grant of power, is in- 
vested with all legislation whatsoever over the District, and not 
only so, but it is an exclusive power." Suppose, said IMr, Clay 
(we abridge his argument on this point), that Maryland siionld' 
abolish slavery, are we obliged to have it forever in the District? 
Suppose Maryland and Virginia should abolish slavery, must we 
still have it in the District, because, forsooth, it is unconstitu- 
tional to abolish it? Suppose all the slave States should abolish 
slavery, must it remain forever a stain on our national escutcheon 
in the District of Columbia ? Such is the absurdity of the posi- 
tion of those honorable senators, who maintain that the abolition 
of slavery in the District, by Congress, would be an unconstitu- 
tional act. 

Mr. Clay expressed his astonishment, as justly he might, that 
honorable senators should take such ground, and he was forced 
to ascribe it to party spirit and passion. AVhat else could it be ? 
There was the language of the Constitution, and such was the 
absurdity, above depicted, of a denial of this power, INIr. Clay's 
fairness, as a logician, had previously admitted, in favor of the 
South, that Congress had power to establish slavery in the Ter- 
ritories, if they should think best. He also maintained that they 
had power to abolish slavery in the Territories, and that the two 
powers were necessarily co-existent. 

But, in the case of the District of Columbia, there was an im- 
plied obligation in its cession by Maryland (also of Virginia before 
the retrocession) as a seat of the General Government, that the 
institutions of Maryland should not be injured by the use of it. 
It was an absolute cession for a specific object ; but the abolition 
question, as it had sprung up in later times, was never anticipated. 
Mr. Clay, therefore, proposed that good faith with jMaryland 
should be kept sacred, and that slavery in the District should not 
be abolished without her consent, as she had never contemplated 
such a result from her act of cession. The cession by Maryland 
was a patriotic donation, to found a seat of Federal power for the 
convenience and honor of the nation. And in good faith, Mr. 
Clay considered that Congress, though it had full and exclusive 
power of legislation over the District, could not depart from the 
great object of the cession, or go beyond it, for a political or other 
purpose, without consulting the generous donor ; more especially, 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 145 

that Congress could not in good foith, do any tliina; \n the Dis- 
trict that would distnrh the institutions of Maryland, such as 
abolishing slavery there before Maryland had abolished it. 

Notwithstanding Mr. Clay seemed to think, that this resolu- 
tion demanded no concession from the North but sentiment, with 
great respect for his opinion, we think that principle was con- 
cerned in it, because, as must be seen, in affirming such a reso- 
lution as an act of Congress, so far as the free States should vote 
for it, they would not only loan their sanction to slavery in the 
District, but they would commit themselves by a direct act, to 
legislate for it there. All that could jnstly be claimed of the free 
States, in the case, was, that on account of their principles on the 
subject of slavery, they would not, in the circumstances, attempt 
to disturb slavery in the District, which would be a concession 
to the pacific object of the resolution, without committing them 
to uphold slavery. They not only believed with Mr. Clay, that 
Congress had the power to abolish slavery in the District, but 
they had serious scruples about its existence on the soil conse- 
crated as the seat of the General Government ; and the constitu- 
encies of the members of Congress from the free States, were 
constantly urging them to propose and effect the abolition of 
slavery in the District. This great and comprehensive fact was, 
indeed, the very occasion and ground of Mr. Clay's resolution ; 
and we respectfully think that there was something more than 
sentiment, that there was principle in it. Mr. Clay elsewhere 
avers : 

" I said yesterday there was not a single resolution, except 
the first (which called for no concession from either party), that 
did not either contain some mutual concession by the two par- 
ties, or that did not contain concessions altogether from the 
North to the Soiith.'^ 

We respectfully think that the fifth resolution is one of the 
latter class above referred to, unless it was claimed, as it hardly 
could be, that the use of the word " inexpedient"' instead of the 
word " unconstitutional,'' was a concession from the South. 

Mr. Clay was, doubtless, right in saying that his resolutions, 
as a whole, demanded more concessions from the North than 
from the South, and he purposely made them so. No man 
knew better than he how the South felt, and he had more hope 
of gaining concession from the North in his system of mutual 

10 



146 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

accommodation, because the people of the North knew that they 
themselves were safe, and Mr. Clay thought they could better 
artord concession. And while Mr. Clay, in his system of gen- 
eral compromises, placed much hope on the generosity of the 
North, on account of its secure position, he knew how to sym- 
pathize with the South on account of its conscious insecurity. 
He repeatedly told the senators from the free States, *' It is sen- 
timent with you. With us it is our homes, our wives, our fam- 
ilies, our firesides." It can not be denied that these few words 
make a great speech, and a powerful appeal, and no man knew 
better how to apply such facts and thoughts than Mr. Clay, 
and there was a great deal of truth in them. Nevertheless, there 
must be a compromise, there must be concession from both 
sides, or else the great object of Mr. Clay in pacifying both par- 
ties would be frustrated. The North must give up something 
of its sentiment, though, as can not be denied, it clung very 
closely to principle in regard to slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, as also on other questions : and the South must give up 
something of its unreasonable claims, as for example, that for 
Congress to legislate over slavery in the District of Columbia 
was unconstitutional ; or that the Constitution of the United 
States carried it into all the Territories, and was bound to pro- 
tect it there, independent of municipal law. These were points 
which the free States would never concede. It was necessary 
to Mr. Clay's general argument that he should maintain that 
Congress had unlimited power over the TeiTitories, before they 
were erected into States ; and, of course, power either to estab- 
lish or abolish slavery there, though he himself would oppose 
the establishment of slavery in the Territories. He did not be- 
lieve in slavery as a good and desirable institution, but he con- 
sidered it a great evil. On this point he was an old-school 
statesman, as well as a friend of freedom. He said, wc justly 
reproached our British ancestors for forcing slavery on this 
country against the remonstrances of the colonists, and that this 
fact was our best and chief vindication for having slavery here. 
For himself, he would never fall under the same reproach of a 
future State of this Union, for imposing slavery upon it, by 
establishing it in any of our Territories. 

Probal)ly no man more desired the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, as the seat of the General Government, 
to wipe off such a stain from our national escutcheon, than Mr, 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 147 

Clay ; and he doubtless looked forward to the time when that 
could be done with the consent of Maryland, and by the inhab- 
itants of the District, by paying the owners of the slaves eman- 
cipated. But he would never consent to break faith with Mary- 
land, or with the inhabitants of the District, by forcing emanci- 
pation against the will of these parlies. He would, therefore, 
do the best thing which the circumstances of the case allowed : 
he would break up the slave-trade in the District, and put an 
end to the national disgrace of slave pens on the soil -conse- 
crated as the seat of government of a great and free people — of 
the shocking paradox of presenting to the public eye of the 
world, in such a place, bands of manacled slaves driven through 
Pennsylvania avenue, and singing on their march, in derision of 
American pretensions to freedom, '' Hail, Columbia !" Mr. 
Clay claimed that there could be but one sentiment. North or 
South, on this question, and that even slaveholders looked upon 
this species of traffic with no other feelings than those of dis- 
gust and abhorrence. He declared that slave-traders were ban- 
ished from good society, even in slave States, by their voca- 
tion, such, even there, was the universal detestation of the traffic. 
The appeal made in the sixth resolution was eflective, and the 
slave-trade is forever banished from the District of Columbia. 

The seventh resolution is, " That more effectual provision 
ought to be made by law, according to the requirement of the 
Constitution, for the restitution and delivery of persons bound 
to service or labor in any State, who may escape into any other 
State or Territory of the Union." The article of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, alluded to in this resolution, reads 
thus : '•' That no person held to service or labor in one State, un- 
der the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence 
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from service or 
labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due." 

There have been two interpretations of this article : one, that 
it is a mere basis of federal legislation to effect its object : and 
the other, that it is itself the law, and the only law intended. 
By the latter interpretation, the rule prescribed to the owner of 
a slave that has escaped into another State, is, catch him if you 
can, and recover him if you can, in the use of the agencies of 
the General Government, as they exist in relation to the munici- 
pal laws of the State into which the fugitive may have gone. 



148 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

As federal law is paramount, it is presupposed that no munici- 
pal regulation can oppose the recovery of the fugitive. But a 
long course of experience had proved that this power, if not in- 
operative, was at least very inadequate to the object in view, 
Mr. Clay assumed that this article of the Constitution was a 
mere basis of legislation, and such, doubtless, is the true con- 
struction of all fundamental law. It is not legislation in detail, 
but authority for such legislation, as the case may require. To 
this point Mr. Clay's seventh resolution was directed. This ar- 
ticle of fundamental law had failed in securing its object. To 
the North, Mr. Clay could say, There is the article of the Con- 
stitution — there is the authority. To the South he could say, 
]\Iy resolution proposes to make that article of fundamental 
law effective for your purposes. The North could not deny the 
authority, and the South was willing to have help. In a meas- 
ure of this kind, Mr. Clay said he would go as far as the fur- 
thest ; and he rebuked the opposition that had been manifested 
in the free States to the accomplisliment of this oliject, by rank- 
ing it with what is technically called bad neighborhood — Itad 
in disposition, and, in some cases, bad in the positive enactments 
of legislation; for some of the free States had put impediments 
in the way of the recovery of fugitive slaves. This Mr. Clay 
averred to be an infraction of the Federal Constitution, and he 
claimed that it was a grievous wrong, of which the slave States 
had just cause of complaint. He claimed that slaveholders, 
traveling in the free States, ought to be permitted to take their 
servants along with them, without being molested, and without 
being exposed to having them seduced and taken from them. 

It can not be denied that on the basis of good neighborhood 
between the States, this reasoning \vas conclusive. But the logic 
of politics is one thing, and the logic of the heart is another ; and 
no reasoning can ever suppress the actings of the latter. It is an 
inellaceable part of the instincts of the people of the free States 
to tiiink that property in man, African or other, is a wrong, and 
no law can force tiiem to assist in the recovery of fugitive slaves, 
nor to do other than connive at their escape. Of this Mr. Clay was 
quite aware. He, therefore, desired that a law should be enacted 
by Congress, which should arm tiie Federal authorities with full 
and elfcctive powers to overtake and recover fugitive slaves, 
against all these disadvantages. Mr. Clay regarded such a law 
as a necessary peace-oUcring to the South, in this great contro- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 149 

versy between the free and slave States. There was the article 
of the Constitution in the plainest terms providing authority, and 
Mr. Clay invoked a corresponding legislation to give it effect. 

Still, the great principle of common law, that a slave is free 
the moment his foot touches free soil by the consent of his 
master, was one whicli must not be invaded. It is a doctrine 
of the civilized world, and it will only become stronger in its 
influence as time advances. It was only the special legislation 
of the slave States, and the rights of slavery as defined by the 
Federal Constitution, that could be invoked for its protection. It 
was ahsohitely necessary in the construction of this law, to steer 
straight hetween Soylla and Charybdis, to avoid being dcished 
on the rocks of the one, or swallowed up by the other, that the 
safety of the ship could he secured. The article of the Consti- 
tution above referred to, was the pole star. There was sufficient 
authority for Federal action ; but it could not enforce a corre- 
spond uig legislation in the free States, nor control the will of the 
people of the free States. It was, therefore, only an experiment, 
which might or might not prove effectual for the purpose intended. 
It was a hard pill for the free States to swallow ; but they did 
swallow it ; and the beneficent design of Mr. Clay and his asso- 
ciates would probably have been entirely etfected, but for the 
nefarious introduction and passage of the Nebraska-Kansas Bill. 
Could Mr. Clay have risen from his grave, and appeared in the 
Senate Chamber wlien the Nebraska-Kansas Bill was on its pass- 
age, its authors would have turned pale with fear, and their 
teeth would have chattered in cold horror, for their rash and reck- 
less daring in bringing forward and advocating such a measure, 
and for the fearful responsibility that awaited them ! The treason 
of Cataline, which occasioned the memorable exclamation of 
Cicero, '' O tcm] ora ! O mores !" was far behind, in its crime 
and nefarious purpose, this great American treason to the Ameri- 
can compromises of past history. For the former, when exposed, 
was remediable ; whereas the latter is irremediable. 

The eighth and last resolution proposed by Mr. Clay, was the 
following : " That Congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct 
the trade in slaves between the slaveholding States ; but that 
the admission or exclusion of slaves brought from one into 
another of them depends exclusively upon their own particular 
laws." 

This had ever been the practice of the slaveholding States, 



150 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

and Mr. Clay contended that a decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States had ratified the principle. But there is an 
article in the Federal Constitution, giving power to Congress to 
regulate trade between the States, which the genius of the free 
States naturally interpreted as authorizing Congress to legislate 
on the slave-trade between the slaveholding States, and to su]> 
press it. Of course, Mr. Clay's eighth resolution, affirmed by 
Congress, would be, so far, a concession from the free States in 
favor of the slave States. Practically, the course of things on 
this question would, doubtless, remain the same as it had been, 
and the resolution, affirmed, would acquire no new ground, ex- 
cept to arrest agitation on the subject ; and this was what INIr. 
Clay desired. As the slave States were very sensitive on this 
question, Mr. Clay wished to allay their apprehensions by a 
formal declaration of Congress, although he himself relied calmly 
on the decision of the Supreme Court, and on past usage. " I 
think," said Mr. Clay, " the decision of the Supreme Court has 
been founded upon correct principles, and I trust it will forever 
put an end to the question whether Congress has or has not the 
power to regulate the intercourse and trade in slaves between the 
ditferent States."' 

" Such, Mr. President," said ]\Ir. Clay, ''is the series of reso- 
lutions wiiich, in an earnest and anxious desire to present the 
olive-branch to both parts of this distracted, and, at the present 
moment, unhapi)y country, I have thought it my duty to otier. 
* * * While I was engaged in anxious consideration upon 
this subject, the idea of the Missouri Compromise, as it has been 
termed, came under my review, was considered by me, and 
finally rejected, as in my judgment less worthy of the common 
acceptance of both pai-ts of this Union than the project which I 
have ofiered for your consideration." 

It was then, is no\y generally, and seems ever destined to be 
understood, that Mr. Clay was the author of the compromise line 
of 30 30', adopted by Congress in 1S20 ; wherens Mr. Clay had 
nothing to do with it. It did not originate in the House of 
which Mr. Clay was then a member, but in the Senate. Mr. 
Thomas, senator from Illinois, was the original ]»ioposer of this 
line. " You will find," says Mr. Clay, '' if you will take the 
trouble to look at the journals, that on as many as three or four 
dillerent occasions, Mr. Thomas in every instance presented the 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 151 

proposition of 36^ 30'. It was finally agreed to; and I take 
occasion to say, that among those who voted for this line, were 
the majority of the Southern members — my friend from Alabama 
(Mr. King), in the Senate, I\Ir. Pinckney, from Mai-yland, and, 
indeed, the majority of Southern senators voted for this line ; 
and the majority of the Southern membc^rs in the other House, 
at the head of whom was Mr. Lowndes himself, voted for that 
line. I have no doubt I did also ; but as I was speaker, the journal 
does not show. But I have no doubt that T voted, in common 
with my other Southern friends, for the adoption — in a spirit of 
compromise, it is true — of the line of 36^ 30." 

The famous compromise, proposed and can-ied by Mr. Clay, in 
1821, had nothing to do with the line of 36=^ 30'. This line of 
compromise was fixed, as above noticed, at the previous session 
of Congress, and Mr. Thomas, of Illinois, was its author. But 
at the next session of Congress, running into 1821, the country 
was all in a blaze again, when Missouri claimed to be admitted 
as a State, with a clause in her Constitution, excluding free 
blacks from her jurisdiction, which would shut out all citizens 
of free States who might be tainted with African blood. This, 
evidently, was in direct contravention of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, which guaranties equal rights for the citizens of any State 
in all the other States. This was the great difficulty which Mr. 
Clay had to grapple with, when he returned to Congress in Jan- 
uary, 1821, after some weeks of the session had expired, and 
when the flame of excitement in Congress and in the country 
was intense, on account of this attitude of Missouri, and this 
clause in her Constitution. Read the history of Mr. Clay's do- 
ings on this occasion, as given by himself in his speech in the 
appendix to this volume. That account will forever have a 
thrilling interest. It was one of the greatest achievements of 
man in the social state — all accomplished, unaided, by the genius, 
the skill, the tact, the patriotism of that wonderful man, so di- 
vinely endowed for great exigences. Nothing could be more 
simple than the proposal, the compromise, a copy of which will 
be found in the speech in the appendix. As will be seen, it was 
infallible in its aim — morally certain to accomplish its object in 
Missouri, if it could be carried through Congress. Hoc opus, hie 
labor. When Mr. Clay proposed his plan, all saw that he was 
inspired for the occasion, and that he was the only man to do it. 
With the most rare unanimity, with scarcely a breath of opposi- 



152 TUE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

tion, both Houses of Congress let him have his own way entirely, 
AND IT WAS DONE. Well might Mr. Clay be called the great 
PAciFicATou. The angry waves which at that moment rolled 
fearfully over the face of the whole country, were all stilled in a 
moment as by a charm. The flames of discord which flashed 
upon the clouds in a , dark night, like a city in conflagration, 
were all extinguished by a single breath of Mr. Clay's mouth. 
For, after all, it was simply a breath — a word. It was simply 
saying to Missouri, " Yes, come in ; be one of our great family ; 
but come like a sister, acknowledging the paramount obligations 
of the Federal Constitution." This was all that was required; 
and it was morally certain that Missouri would come in on that 
condition, thus nullifying, by her own act, the obnoxious clause 
of her Constitution. She did come in, and all was peace. Noth- 
ing but a transcendent genius adapted to great exigences, and 
allied to a sound heart beating in every pulse with human kind- 
ness and patriotism, could have invented and applied so simple, 
so eff'ective, so infallible a remedy for the agitations of that fear- 
ful hour. Read the compromise, as given in the speech, and 
observe its simplicity; and read Mr. Clay's own comments upon 
it. Ts it not a marvel that such a simple invention could have 
produced such an effect ? We say again, it was the creative 
power of genius, of consummate skill in human aflairs. 

We desire here to call attention to Mr. Clay's remarks in his 
speech on the Compromise Line, so called, of 36' 30'. It will 
be seen he does not think there is much virtue or fairness in it ; 
certainly no reciprocity ; but that it is all for one side in the 
great controversy. Nevertheless, Mr. Clay was sufliciently de- 
cided un the question of planting slavery in the Territories south 
of the line of 30 30'. "Sir," he said, '* I have said that I 
never could vote for it, and I repeat that I never can, and never 
will vote for it. No earthly power shall ever make me vote to 
plant slavery where slavery does not exist." 

The concluding remarks of Mr. Clay, in his speech, after he 
had considered and vindicated his resolutions scrioti/n, are 
worthy of special attention. He was completely exhausted by 
his two days' elibrt, ruiming into the night of each day, and 
the drooping powers of his physical condition, toward the close 
of the second day, were sufficiently apparent. His friends observ- 
ing this exhaustion, repeatedly proposed an adjournment to the 
third day. But jNlr. Clay, apparently conscious that he could not 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 153 

attempt to speak another clay, insisted on conclndi '.s; Mt this 
time, though he could not say all he wished. Tt is ai imper- 
fect and uiifuiished peroration ; hut what there is of it is roplete 
with tlic agony of concern which he felt for tlio c, untry. 
Though he had afterward much to do in the dis|'( sitiiMi of 
these great questions, this was the end of his great etiort of 
this session of Congress, and of his i)ubhc life. It was too 
much for his strength, and it nndonhtedly shortetjed his days, 
for he never recovered from its ellects. 

In connection with the great theme of this chapter, and as 
having an intimate aOinity with it, we think it pro[^er to notice 
Mr. Clay's letter, in 1849, on the gradual abolition of slavery in 
Kentucky, when a Convention of that State was about to alter 
and amend the Constitution. The letter is addressed to Richard 
Pindell, Esq., of Lexington ; but, as will be seen, was intended 
for the people of the State. It proposes a system of gradual 
emancipation, till the State should be entirely rid of slavery. 
Although Mr. Clay had little hope of success at this time, he 
nevertheless thought it his duty to present and argue the question 
before the people of Kentucky, when they were about to make 
chauiies in their fundamental law. This letter is an imi)ortant his- 
torical memento of a life-long cherished scheme of Mr. Clay, 
and it contains a detailed project of legislation for the accomplish- 
ment of this object. It demonstrates how much Mr. Clay had 
thought upon the subject, and that he had well considered all the 
practical operations of the question. The letter will be found in 
the Appendix to this volume.* 

The following extract from the last will and testament of Mr. 
Clay, regarding the disposition of his own slaves, is based on 
the same principles which he proposed for the gradual abolition 
of slavery in the State of Kentucky: 

EXTRACT FROM MR. CLAY's WILL. 

" In the sale of any of my slaves, I direct that members of 
families shall not be separated without their consent. 

" My will is, and I accordingly direct, that the issue of all my 
female slaves, which may be born after the hrst day of January, 
1850, shall be free at the respective ages, of the males at twenty- 
eight, and of the females at twenty-live ; and that the three 
years next preceding their arrival at the age of freedom, they 

* Note B., page 346. 



154 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

shall be entitled to their hire or wages for those years, or of the 
fair value of their services, to defray the expense of transporting 
them to one of the African colonies, and of furnishing them 
with an outfit on their arrival there. And I further direct, that 
they be taught to read, to write, and to cipher, and that they be 
sent to Africa. I further will and direct, that the issue of any 
of the females, who are so to be entitled to their freedom, at the 
age of twenty-five, shall be deemed free from their birth, and 
that they be bound out as apprentices to learn farming, or some 
useful trade, upon the condition also, of being taught to read, to 
write, and to cipher. And I direct, also, that the age of twenty- 
one having been attained, they shall be sent to one of the Afri- 
can colonies, to raise the necessary funds for which purpose, if 
they shall not have previously earned them, they must be hired 
out a sufficient length of time. 

" I require and enjoin my executors and descendants to pay 
particular attention to the execution of this provision of my will. 
And if they should sell any of the females who or whose issue 
are to be free, 1 especially desire them to guard carefully the 
rights of such issue by all suitable stipulations and sanctions in 
the contract of sale. But I hope that it may not be necessary 
to sell any such persons who are to be entitled to their freedom, 
but that they may be retained in the possession of some of my 
descendants." 

In one of the debates on the Compromise of 1S50, Mr. Clay 
made a very interesting allusion to his Letter on Emancipation, 
above referred to, which will be found in the Appendix.* 

* Note C, page 353. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 185 0. 

The Plan of Mr. Clay. — ^What is a Compromise? — Ultraists opposed to Mr. Clay.— 
Abuse by Abolitionists. — Slavery abolished in Mexico. — Mr. Bdl's Resolutions. — 
Mr. Foote's Motion for a Committee of Tliirteen. — An extraordinary- Scene in the 
Senate. — Report of the Committee of Thirteen. — Its Reception. — Opposition of the 
President. — Mr. Clay's Remarks upon this Opposition. — Mr. Bell defends the 
President. — Death of the President. — Mr. Clay's Disinterestedness. — Mr. Webster 
on the Wilmot Proviso. — Mr. Clay's Opinion on carrying Slavery into the Territo- 
ries — Consequences of the Defeat or Success of the Bill. — Treason in South 
Carolina. — Defeat of the Bill a Victory. 

H.wiNG, ill the preceding chapter, reviewed at large Mr. Clay's 
exposition and vindication of his Compromise resolutions as 
contained in his speech of February 5th and 6th, 1850, it is 
proper tliat we proceed to the subsequent action of the Senate 
and of Congress, which grew out of this important movement 
of Mr. Clay — more especially and chiefly to notice the part sus- 
tained by Mr. Clay in such action. Mr. Clay had opened the 
wide field of debate, and commenced the movement, which 
could not now be arrested, and whicli must necessarily come to 
some result. His resolutions covered the whole groimd ; but 
he never expected that all these branches of the general subject 
could be embraced in a single bill. He was forced to group 
them in one array, as points or topics whicii imperatively de- 
manded the consideration and legislation of Congress, whether 
in hah' a dozen, less or more, separate measures, he did not 
claim to specify, in the act of propounding the subjects. But 
certain senators seemed desirous that the topics should not be 
separated, but that all of them should move on in legislative 
action and in dehsite pari passu, which, of course, would be im- 
possible for the accomplishment of the end in view. The admis- 
sion of California as a State, was a distinct question, and might 
be acted on by itself, " I do not think it would be right," said 



156 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Mr. Clay, on the 14tli of February, " to embrace in a general 
motion the question of the admission of Cahfornia and all the 
other subjects treated of l)y the resolutions upon the table — the 
subject, for example, of the establishment of Territorial govern- 
ments, the subject of the estaljlishment of a boundary line for 
Texas, and the proposition to compensate Texas for the surren- 
der of territory. I say, sir, I do not think it would be right to 
confound or to combine all these subjects, and to throw them be- 
fore one Committee to be acted upon together. * * * My first 
proposition relates to California ; the second to the Territorial 
government ; the third and fourth to Texas ; the fifth and sixth 
to the District of Columbia ; the seventh to the recovery of fugi- 
tive slaves ; etc. * * * Why, sir, it is impossible that any body 
could conceive, that I intended to embrace all this variety 
of suljjects in one bill, and propose the passage of them all at 
once." 

It is sufficient, in this place, that we recognize the plan of 
Mr. Clay, so far as that he never contemplated the incorpora- 
tion of all his propositions in one l)ill. The idea was absurd, 
and the project impracticable. 

Then, as now, there were men who were opposed to all com- 
promises, and professed to go for what they called right. Hear- 
ing so much on this point, Mr. Clay took occasion to remark : 
" There are persons who are very wise in their own esteem, and 
who will reject all compromises ; but that is no reason why a 
compromise should not be attempted. I go for honorable com- 
promise, Avhen occasions call for it. Life itself is but a compro- 
mise, until the Great Destroyer finally triumphs. All legislation, 
all government, all society, is formed upon the principle of mutual 
concession, politeness, comity, courtesy : upon these every thing 
is based. I bow to you to-day, because you bow to me. You 
are respectful to me, because I am respectful to you. (\)mpro- 
mise is jjeculiarly appropriate between the members of a Repub- 
lic, as of one conuuon t'amily. Compromises have this recom- 
mendation, that if you concede any thing, you have something 
conceded to you in return. Treaties are compromises made with 
foreign powers, which is not a case like this. Here, if you con- 
cede any tiling, it is to your own brethren — to your own family. 
Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weak- 
nesses, its infu-mities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, 
I never will compromise ; but let no one who is not above the 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 157 

frailties of our common nature, disdain compromises." If ]Mr. 
Clay excelled in any thing, it was in his common sense, and in 
the practical bearing whicli he gave to every subject which he 
touched. The above remarks on compromise, are eminently of 
this character. Here the practical bearings of an abstract prin- 
ciple are most impressively depicted. After reading it, any man 
ought to be ashamed who objects to compromise. What is more 
evident than that it enters into the life of man, in all his rela- 
tions, and not less into the structure of general society ? 

Mr. Clay's resolutions had the following remarkable sanction 
of Mr. Webster, in the course of the debate on the subject : "I 
will say, that I feel under great obligations to the honorable 
senator from Kentucky, for introducing the subject, and for the 
very lucid speech which he made, and which has been so much 
read throughout the whole country." 

Mr. Clay had the misfortune — perhaps we should say good 
fortune, as truth generally lies between extremes — to be equally 
assailed by ultra Southern men and Northern abolitionists. The 
following remarks of his, on two different occasions, will illus- 
trate this, and show the force of his determination to do his 
duty : 

" With regard to the reference which the gentleman (Mr. 
Foote) has made to a letter of mine addressed to a Free-soil 
Convention, in Ohio, during the past summer — that is all fair, 
and I shall state what the contents of the letter were. I was in- 
vited to attend the celebration of an anniversary of the passage 
of the ordinance of 1787; and I think I gave a very delicate 
rebuke to tlie parties who sent me the invitation. I said it was 
the fust time the day had been celebrated, although sixty years 
have elapsed since the passage of that ordinance. I added, and 
I add here and everywhere, that not one of them, that no man' 
in the United States, was more opposed than I was to the intro- 
duction of slavery into any of the new territories of this country 
by positive enactment of law, and that I did not believe there 
existed, under the present state of what I conceive to be the 
laws of Mexico, any right on the part of any individual to carry 
slaves there. That was what was in the letter. * * * * 

" I really should be much indebted to the honorable senator 
(Mr. Foote) for the sympathy which he felt for me, in respect to 
the recent attack in the newspaper laid on our desks. But, sir, 
I desire the sympathy of no man — the forbearance of no man. 
I desire to escape from no responsibility of my public conduct 
on. account of my age, or for any other cause. I ask for none. 



158 ' THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

I am in a peculiar situation, Mr. President, if you will allow me 
to say so — without any earthly object of ambition before me — 
standing, as it were, on the brink of eternity — separated to a 
great extent from all the earthly ties which connect a mortal with 
this transitory state. I am Acre, expecting soon to go hence, and 
owing no responsibility but that which I owe to my own con- 
science and to God. Ready to express my opinions upon all and 
upon every subject, I am determined to do so : and no imputa- 
tion, no threat, no menace, no application of awe or of terrors 
to me will be availing in restraining me from expressing them. 
None, none whatever. The honorable senator (Mr. Foote)may 
deem me an abolitionist, if he chooses. Be it so. Sir, if there 
is a well-abiised man in the country — if I were to endeavor to 
find out the man above all others the most abused by abolition- 
ists, it is the humble individual now addressing you. The hon- 
orable senator from Mississippi does not, perhaps, see these papers 
as I do ; but they all pour out, from their vials of wrath, bitter- 
ness which is perfectly indescribable ; and they put epithets into 
their papers accompanied with all the billingsgate which they 
can employ ; and lest I should not see them, they invariably 
take occasion, in these precious instances of traduction, to send 
their papers to me. I wish the honorable senator could have 
an opportunity of seeing some of them." 

Here Mr. Cass said, '' I can give the honorable senator from 
Mississippi a basket of them, if he will take the trouble to read 
them ; and I must say, that the honorable senator from 
Kentucky (Mr. Clay) is about the best abused man in all this 
Union." 

" Now, sir," continued Mr. Clay, " when I brought forward 
these resolutions, I intended, so help me God, to propose a plan 
of doing equal and impartial justice to the South and to the 
North, so far as I could comprehend it, and I think it does yet. 
But how has this effort been received by the ultraists ? Why, 
sir, at the North they cry out, ' It is all concession to the South.' 
And, sir, what is the language of the South ? They say, ' It is 
all concession to the North,' and I assure you, Mr. President, it 
has reconciled me very much to my poor etforts, to fuid that 
the ultraists, on the one hand and on the other, equally traduce 
the scheme I propose as conceding every thing to their op- 
ponents. * * * 

" The honorable Senator (Mr. Footc) said, I had gone over to 
the ranks of the enemy. Enemy ! ^Vhe^e have we enemies in 
this happy and glorious Confederacy? I know no foes, no 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 159 

enemies, no opponents, either at the North or at the South. I 
consider us all as one family, all as friends, all as brethren. I con- 
sider us all as united in one common destiny; and those eilbrts 
which I shall continue to employ will be to keep us together 
as one family, in concord and harmony ; and, above all, to avoid 
that direful day when one part of the Union can speak of the 
other as an enemy !" 

The peculiar position of Mr. Clay, in this movement, as above 
depicted by himself, is indeed touching. He had nothing to 
hope for from the country, in compensation for his efforts. His 
days as a politician were numbered. He felt that he stood 
on the brink of the grave, and that this very labor might carry 
him down into it. In this position he could say things which 
no other man could say. Ever honest and true, he could not 
be otherwise now ; and his words had great weight. All parties 
and opponents heeded him. As he himself claimed, he consulted 
only his conscience, the welfare of the country, and his respons- 
ibility to God. He told the South and the North what he 
thought they ought to be told — to both he uttered some unpal- 
atable truths ; and he called upon each to make such concession 
to the other, as the state of the country required for the adjust- 
ment of all controversy between these two sections of the Re- 
public. 

This great debate, opened by Mr. Clay on the 5th and 6th of 
February, continued, at intervals, for months, and Mr. Clay was 
always at his post, when it was the order of the day. We 
seldom find him in the Senate on other days. His health was 
insufficient, and his great solicitude was to bring these questions 
to the right issue, that whenever God should call him hence, he 
should leave his country in peace and harmony with itself. 

On the 27th of February, Mr. Benton, of Missouri, enter- 
tained and instructed the Senate, on the history of the abolition 
of slavery in the Republic of Mexico. His showing evinced 
great and thorough research in the documentary history of 
Mexico, and if any had doubted before, there could be but one 
opinion now, and that is, that slavery in Mexico had been 
abolished, as maintained by Mr. Clay in his second proposition. 

In this matter, Mr. Benton did Mr. Clay a good service ; for 
the abolition of slavery in Mexico was not generally admitted by 
Southern men. 

On the 2Sth of February, Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, brought 



160 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

forward in the Senate a series of resolutions, having the same 
object with those of Mr. Clay, and explained them at length. 
The first four of these resolutions related to Texas ; the fifth pro- 
posed to establish one Territorial government for all the Territo- 
ries acquired from Mexico, except California, and those parts lying 
within the bounds of Texas: the sixth proposed to admit Cal-' 
ifornia ; the seventh proposed .legislation for the future action of 
Territories in erecting themselves into States ; the eighth assert- 
ed the right of Territories to frame State Constitutions agreeable 
to themselves, under the restrictions of the Federal Con- 
stitution ; and the ninth and last, that a Committee be appointed 
to prepare a bill to incorporate the spirit and principles of these 
resolutions. 

Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, moved, that a select committee of 
thirteen, six from the north and six from the south, with a chair- 
man for the thirteenth, be appointed, to take Mr. Clay's and ]\lr. 
Bell's resolutions as a basis of compromise, and to report a bill or 
bills thereon. After a debate running through a number of M'eeks, 
Mr. Foote's resolution was adopted, and the committee appointed 
by ballot, as follows : Mr. Clay, chairman. From the North, 
Messrs. Cass, Dickinson, Bright, Webster, Phelps, and Cooper. 
From the South, Messrs. King, Mason, Downs, Mangum, Bell, 
and Berrien*. 

* In tlie debate iu Senate, on the 17th of April, on referring Mr. Clay's and ilr. 
Bell's propositions of compromise, to a committee of thirteen, an extraordinary 
scene occurred. Mr. Foote, of Mis-sissippi, .'^aid, '' the signers of ' the Southern 
ad(h-ess,' written by Mr. Callioun, liad been denounced. By whom? By a gen- 
tleman long denominated the oldest member of the Senate — the father of the Sen- 
ate. By a gentleman who, on a late occasion — " Here Mr. Benton, of Missouri, 
alluded to, rose from his seat and walked toward Mr. Foote ; and Mr. Foote, who 
occupied a seat on the outer circle, in front of the Vice-President's chair, retreated 
backward down the aisle, toward the chair of the Vice-President, Avith a pistol in 
his hand. Mr. Benton advanced by the aisle, outside the bar, toward ilr. Foote, 
following him into the aisle down which he hail retreated. In a moment every 
senator was on his feet. Calls of " order," demands for the sergeant-at-arras, 
and requests from the chair for senators to be seated, were loudly and earnestly 
vociferated. Mr. Benton was followed and arresteil by Mr. Dodge, of Wiscon- 
sin, and in the excitement and confusion that prevailed, ilr. Benton was beard 
to exclaim, from time to time, "I have no pistols!" "Let him lire!" "Stand 
out of the way!" "I have no pistols!" "I disdain to carry arms." While 
making those exclamations. ^Mr. BlmUou was bi'onght back to his seat; but break- 
ing away from Mr. Dodge, who sought forcibly to detaiu him, he advanced 
again toward ^[r. Foote, who stood near the A'ice-Presideut's diair, on the right 
hand side, surrounded by senators. Jilr. Dickiuson, of Xew York, took the pis- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. IGl 

The Committee of Tliirteen was appointed on the 19 ih of 
April, and Mr. Clay, the Chairman, reported on the Sth of May. 
They brought in three separate bills, covering most of the 
ground occupied by Mr. Clay's and Mr. Bell's resolutions ; one 
for the admission of California, organizing the Territorial Govern- 

tol from the haad of Mr. Footc, and locked it up in his desk; and Mr. Foote, 
at the sohcitation of Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, returned to lus seat. 

The Vice-President directed that senators and spectators should be seated, 
and order was partially restored ; but much confusion prevailed. 

Mr. Clay said: "I hope that order will be restored." 

Mr. Benton: " We are not going to get off in this way. A pistol has been 
brought here to assassinate me. The scoundrel had no reason to think I was 
armed. For I carry nothing of the Icind, sir." 

Mr. Foote: "I brought it here to defend myself." 

Mr. Benton : " Nothing of the kind, sir. It is a false imputation. I carry 
nothing of the kind, and no assassin has a right to draw a pistol on me." 

Several senators : "Order! order!" 

Mr. Benton: "It is a mere pretext of the assassin. Will the senate take 
notice of it? Or shall I be forced to go and get a weapon myself? A pistol 
has been brought here, and drawn upon me by an assassin. 

The Vice-President : " Senators will be seated." 

Mr. Foote: "Mr. President— " 

The Vice-President: "Senators will be pleased to suspend their remarks 
until order is restored. Senators are requested to be seated." 

Mr. Clay : " Mr. President—" 

The Vice-President: "Business can not proceed until order is restored. 
There is too much noise in the galleries." 

Mr. Foote : "May I proceed in order?" 

Mr. Benton : " I demand that the Senate shall take immediate cognizance of 
the fact of this pistol having been brought here to assassinate me, under the 
villainous pretext that I was armed — the pretext of every assassin who under- 
talces to make out a case of self-defense, when plotting the death of his victim. 
Will the Senate notice it ? Or shall I myself? For it shall not pass." 

Mr. Foote : "If my presenting a pistol here has been thought anything but 
self-defense, after threats of personal chastisement, it is doing me a wrong. I 
saw him advancing toward me, and I took it for granted he was armed. Had 
I thought otherwise, I should have stopped to meet him in that narrow 
aUey." 

The Vice-President: " The senator will suspend his remarks for a moment." 

Mr. Ilale, of New Hampshire: "Mr. President, I rise to a privileged ques- 
tion, to ask the Senate, whether it is not due to itself, that this subject should 
be investigated ?" 

Mr. Foote: " I court it. It is my earnest desire that this matter may be in- 
vestitrated. Bein? threatened with cha.stisement, and informed that I was 
likely to be attacked, I simply prepared to resist an attack, but resolved to 
make no attack myself If the senator had advanced down the alley to attack 
me, it was my purpose to defend myself." 

Mr. Dodge . " Mr. President, I move, sir, that a committee of five be ap- 

11 



162 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

ments, and determining the boundaries of Texas. This, as will 
be seen, embraced the first, second, third, and fourth resohitions 
of Mr. Clay. Tlie second bill proposed enactments for the re- 
covery of fugitive slaves ; and the thii"d was framed to put an 
end to the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. These two 

pointed by tlie chair, to investigate the whole matter, and report all the facts to 
the Senate." 

Mr. ^langum : " Let it be a committee of seven." 

Mr. .Dodge: "I accept the amendment." 

The resolution was as follows : " Resolved^ That a committee of seven be ap- 
pointed to investigate the disorder of to-day in the Senate, and that they re- 
port to the Senate what befits the occasion, and have power to examine wit- 
nesses, and take testimony on the case." 

Mr. Clay : " I should have risen earlier, sir, but for a reason which I will not 
name at present. I think the course Avhich has been proposed a very proper 
one. The facts which unfortunately occurred, were, I suppose, within the ob- 
servation of most of the senators. I was not looking on at the moment ; for 
my attention was drawn from that part of the body. But I think tlie resolu- 
tion does not go far enough. I think the two senators ought to be placed 
under an obligation to keep the peace, and for that purpose, that they should, 
either voluntarily or otherwise, go before some magistrate of the city, or that 
both of them in their places, should here pledge themselves — which would be 
more gratifying to me — not to pursue this matter further than what occurred 
to-day. If tlie two senators will make such a promise, I shall he extremely 
happy." 

Mr. Benton: "I have done nothing upon God Almighty's earth to authorize 
any man to charge me ^vitli a breach of the j^eace, and I will rot in jail before 
I will give a promise admitting that the charge is true. I regret notliing. It 
is lying and cowardly to impute to me the bearing of arms here, in order to 
justify the use of them upon me." 

Mr. Clay : "My observations did not relate to the past, but to the future. I 
did not pretend to say whether either or both of the parties were in fault. I 
merely expressed a wish in reference to the future, and without reference to 
the past, that the two senators should come under sbmc legal or person;d obli- 
gation not to push this matter further," 

Mr. Foote : " Mr. President—" 

Several senators: "Be cool." 

Mr. Eoote : " I am perfectly cool, and I feel the gravity of the occasion, as 
much as others. * * * j have never worn arms to make an attack 
on any person, and have never Avorn arms in the Senate, except when menaced 
as I was the other day in the Senate, with a cudgel. My friends urged me, 
tliat being of small size, and quite feeble in health, I should at leii,<t wear arms 
for my own defense. I put on arms simply for self-defense, supposing it possi- 
ble, after what had occurred, that I might be attacked." 

The resolution for appointing a committee of investigation was adopted, and 
the chair was requested to make the appointment, which was announced the 
next day. 

The occasion of this scene seems to have been the use of personalities in de- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 1C3 

comprised the ground of Mr. Clay's sixtli and seventh resolutions. 
His fifth and eighth resolutions were mere declarations, and were 
not intended as material for legislation. These hills, therefore, 
covered the whole ground of Mr. Clay's resolutions. So far as 
Mr. Bell's resolutions went beyond Mr. Clay's, in the matter of 
legislating for the direction of Territories in the formation of 
State Governments, it does not seem to be provided for in these 
bills, though it was manifestly a pertinent and important object, 
since so many irregularities hav-e been practiced in the formation 
of new States, as, for example, in the cases of Michigan and Cal- 
ifornia. Mr. Clay made a strong vindication of the irregularities 
of California, and said she was obliged to form a govenmient, 
as the previous Congress had adjourned without providing her 
with a Territorial organization. If California had not provided 
for herself, she would have been left in a state of anarchy. 

Since California had made such a leap into the future, and so 
grievously disappointed the South in forming a State Govern- 
ment prohibiting slavery, the South was anxious to arrest her 
admission into the Union, until a slave State could be formed 
elsewhere, and thus maintain the balance of power in the Senate 

bate between Mr. Foote and Mr. Benton, on the 26th of March. Mr. Foote 
had said : " I am glad that the honorable Senator from Missouri has come into 
the war. We meet again at Philippi. I have known all along the spirit which 
actuated that honorable Senator. I know something of liis designs and mo- 
tives, and the country shall know them. The Senator need not tliink of fright- 
ening anybody by a blustering and dogmatic demeanor." 

Mr. Benton, in reply, had said: " Mr. President, I believe tliis is the Ameri- 
can Senate. I believe, by a rule of this Senate, that personalities and attacks 
upon motives, are forbidden. I also beUeve that they are forbidden by the 
rules of decorum. Tliis much I believe ; and now, sir, I will tell you what 
I know. I know that the attacks made upon my motives to-day and hereto- 
fore, in this chamber, are false and cowardly." 

^Ir. Foote had also said in the Senate : " Sir, I will formally announce, that 
there are certain stains which have most hideously blemislied the character of 
the honorable Senator from ilissouri, since the days of his early manhood." 

In reply, Mr. Benton saiil : "I pronounce it cowardly to give insults where 
they can not be chastised. Can I t'lke a cudgel to him here ?" 

Several senators : " Order ! order !" 

Mr. Benton : " Is a senator to be blackguarded here, m the discharge of his 
duty, and the culprit go unpunished ?" 

The Vice-President : " The Senator is called to order." 

Mr. Benton : " Well, sir, write down the words." 

Three weeks after this, occurred the extraordinary scene in the Senate, above 
given. 



164 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

of the United States. Bat where could a slave State be formed? 
By the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas, that State 
was entitled to make four new States, with slavery or without, 
provided slavery would not be carried above the line of 36 30'. 
Bnt Texas was not ready for a new State. The Committee say : 
"While they conceive that the fight of admission into the Union 
of any new States carved out of the Territory of Texas, not ex- 
ceeding the number specified (four), and under the conditions 
stated, can not be justly controverted, the Committee do not think 
that the formation of any such new States should now originate 
with Congress. The initiative, in conformity with the usage 
which has heretofore prevailed, siiould be taken by a portion of 
the people of Texas themselves, who may he desirous of consti- 
tuting a new State, with the consent of Texas." California, 
therefore, must either be left out, or come in alone as a free 
State. For reasons we have before stated, her application could 
not with prudence be rejected. Nevertheless, there were several 
devices that might be employed to embarrass her admission. 
Nobody doubted that her population was sufficient ; yet no 
census had been taken, and this qualification could not be 
proved. She had fixed her own boundaries, on a large scale. 
That was objected to. It was also moved, that she should not 
go further south than the line of 36' 30', that a slave State might 
be formed below that line. But these objections could not be 
sustained. All saw that California must come in on her own 
terms ; and as a large amount of political capital lay in that 
quarter for the Presidential race, some of the aspirants for the Presi- 
dency were foremost in advocating the immediate admission of 
California. Their motives were too apparent not to be clearly 
discerned. They objected even that California should be put in 
the same bill with the Territories, or with any other incongruous 
subject, as they termed it. They talked largely of the dignity 
of California, and maintained that she should not be mixed up 
with any thing else. Nevertheless, Mr. Clay, as Chairman of 
the Committee of Thirteen put California in the same bill with 
the Territories. " Why," said Mr. Clay, -'she occupies the same 
position, and is herself only a Territory, so far as law is con- 
cerned." While no man had more respect for California than 
Mr. Clay, he would not pander to her vanity, if she had such a 
quality. Nor did they who talked so loudly of the rights of Cali- 
forma gain what they hoped, for their motives were too apparent. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 165 

There was a middle ground between the Southron who would 
reject California, and the politician who would throw out a bait 
to her by excessive zeal in favor of her claims ; and that was 
the ground occupied by i\Ir. Clay. Mr. Clay maintained his 
own dignity, without imparing that of California. 

In the discussion which followed the presentation of this re- 
port, on the same day Mr. Clay said : *' Sir, with respect to the 
report, and with respect to tiiese bills, I have interested myself 
in the cause of my country, I have interested myself in the 
great cause of this Union, and of liarmony among its distracted 
parts, and I stand here, and here I mean to stand, to vindicate 
what lias been done, and to vindicate this report, too, if neces- 
sary, from beginning to end, and to show that it is founded in 
reason, in fact, and in truth. But I Mill not now, sir, be drawn 
into a discussion which I think untimely, premature, and calcu- 
lated to make' an impression unfavorable to the final action of 
the body." 

One delights to see these occasional bursts of eloquence, and 
to imagine the effect which they produced: "Here I stand, and 
here I mean to stand," the object being declared. Mr. Clay had 
fallen into the line of this Committee of Thirteen, and became 
its Chairman, not by his own choice, but because the matter 
had taken such a shape by a movement unprompted by him. 
He was in the ship, and they were pleased to give him the 
command of the deck ; and while occupying this post, he could 
only enact himself. He had written the report and he would 
vindicate it. He had taken care that it should embody all 
which he thought material for positive legislation on the points 
contained in his resolutions. He had begun the work, and he 
woidd finish it, God helping him. "Here I stand." 

It is pleasing to see ]Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, who had lieeu 
one of the most violent opposers of Mr. Clay's resolutions when 
first brought forwanl, so modified and so patriotic as he had now 
got to be, and apparently ready to approve of the report. He 
said : "I wish my friends from the South to understand me dis- 
tinctly. I do not profess to have more moral courage than other 
men ; but much as 1 respect and confide in them, and much as I 
should delight to co-operate with them, if it should tiu'n out — 
as I hope will be the case — that I can approve of this report and 
concur with the committee — and I, as earnestly as any member of 
that committee, desire to see the great objects accomplished, for 



1G6 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

v\'hich they have so assiduously, patriotically, and nobly labor- 
ed — I shall dare to give my assent to it. And I shall dare to do 
more, to endeavor, in my humble way, in every shape and form, to 
satisfy my countrymen, north, south, east, and west, that this re- 
port is worthy of their approval. I shall not favor any attempt 
to get up a sectional agitation ; and as far as I myself am con- 
cerned, I am willing to leave it to the good sense and sound pat- 
riotism of the people, whom I have the honor in part to repre- 
sent here, feeling satisfied, that, if laboring to do right, I should 
happen to fail in some shght respects, I should be more than for- 
given ; I should be justified. * * * i urged upon my friend 
from Alabama (Mr. Clemens), that, if the report were of a cer- 
tain character, he should make no hasty or rash opposition to it." 

It is evident from this language of Mr. Foote, that he had be- 
gun to think well of Mr. Clay's proposals of compromise. He 
had had time to think of them from the 29th of January, when 
they were first brought forward, to the 8th of May, when the 
report from the Committee of Thirteen was presented. He had 
himself moved for this committee, and his resolution was adopted. 
INIi-. Foote knew very well that Mr. Clay wrote the report, and 
that it was an embodiment of his resolutions excepting only 
those parts which M'cre merely declaratory of opinion. The 
minds of a majority of the Senate had, no doubt, begun to feel 
that Mr. Clay was right, and that there was no escape from the 
course he had indicated, \vhether it should be done by adopting 
the report, and carrying its proposals forward into the forms of law, 
or by some other course. The Avhole subject was now ripe for 
final action, though, as we shall see, it did afterward take other 
and separate forms. But no new light could be thrown upon it. 
It had been thoroughly debated, and the wisdom and pertinency 
of Mr. Clay's resolutions were now fully ajipreciated. He had 
no occasion to utter a sins;le word. They had "one forth before 
the country, and they were almost universally approved, as a sys- 
tem of compromise. There was opposition, but it was rather 
factious than reasonable. 

It is a remarkable fact m the history of our government, that, 
after the report of the Committee of Thirteen was made, and 
during the entire debate thereon, till [\\v measure was lost — and 
it was lost on that account — a vigorous opposition was made to 
it by the Executive, General Taylor. It is siill more remark- 
able that such an iuterference of one dcixirtnient of the govern- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 167 

ment with the action .of another, did not shock the pnhhc mind, 
and draw forth the londest remonstrances. For nothing can be 
more evident than that it was impertinent in the highest degree. 
It is a matter of extreme dehcacy for one department of the gov- 
ernment to interfere with another, and one can not conceive of 
a case in which it wonld be justifiable. 

It is a right and duty of the President to recommend to Con- 
gress such measures as he may tliink proper, and it is usual and 
respectful in Congress to consider such recommendations. But 
Congress is a co-ordinate branch of the government, and inde- 
pendent in its jirerogatives and functions. It is not obliged to 
adopt what the President recommends, and it may, and usually 
does, originate measures not recommended by the Executive. 
It may adopt his recommendations in part, and reject them in 
part ; or it may reject them altogether, though occasions for this 
latter course would hardly ever occur. ^ 

President Taylor had recommended that California should be 
received into the Union, and that the Territories acquired from 
Mexico should be left as they were, under the care of the na- 
tional Executive ; in other words, under military rule ; for this 
latter had been their condition since the peace, and it would re- 
main so, unless Congress should organize Territorial govern- 
ments. It was now the imperative duty of Congress to organize 
the new Territories. 

But the President seemed to think that this course was a dis- 
respect to his recommendation. Suppose it was. What then ? 
Congress was not obliged to follow it ; but it was bound, as a co- 
ordinate and independent branch of the government, to discharge 
its own appropriate functions, and one of those functions was to 
organize governments for the new Territories, Utah and New 
Mexico. But the President had recommended to leave them in 
his hands ! He would take care of them ! 

Hence the interference. Mr. Clay, in his resolutions, and the 
Committee of Thirteen in their report, had thought it a diuy of 
Congress to provide a government for the Territories acquired 
from Mexico. It was, indeed, a stipulation of the treaty with 
Mexico. Strange to say, the President of the United States re- 
sented thfs aisrespect to his recommendation. Such is the infer- 
ence from'^me course he pursued. He started an open and vig- 
orous opposition to the measures proposed by the Committee of 
Thirteen, through such journals as could be subsidized, and by 



168 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

such other means as the federal executive can usually command 
outside and inside of Congress. A party in both houses of Con- 
gress was instantly formed for tliis specific object. From that 
hour the project of the Committee of Thirteen was doomed. 
And yet it was precisely the measure which the state of the 
country required ; which, indeed, it could not dispense with ; 
and there is no knowing what disastrous consequences might 
have followed if the President had not died, and left open an 
opportunity for the same proposals to be adopted in separate bills, 
before this Congress adjourned. The following are some of Mr. 
Clay's remarks on this opposition of the President : 

" Mr. President, I will take occasion to say, that I came to 
AVashington with the most anxious desire — a desire which I still 
entertain — to co-operate in my legislative position, in all cases 
in which I could conscientiously do it, with the executive branch 
of the government. It is with great pleasure that I state that we 
do co-ojierate with the President to the extent which he recom- 
mends. He recommends the admission of California. The 
committee propose this. But there the President's recommenda- 
tion stops, and then we take up the subject. 

" I am forced, Mr. President, to call the attention of the Sen- 
ate to a very painful duty, let it subject me to what misinter- 
pretation it may, here or elsewhere. I mean the diUy of con- 
trasting the plan proposed by the Executive of the United States 
with the plan proposed by the Committee of Thirteen. * * * 
What is the jjlan of the President? I will describe it by a 
simile, in a manner which can not be misunderstood. Here are 
five wounds — one, two, three, four, five — bleeding, and threaten- 
ing the well-being, if not the existence of the l)ody politic. 
What is the plan of the President ? Is it to lieal all these wounds ? 
No such thing. It is only to heal one of the five, and to leave 
the other four to bleed more profusely than ever, by the sole ad- 
mission of California, even if it should produce death itsell". I 
have said that five wounds arc open and bleeding. What are they ? 
First, there is California ; next, there are the Territories; thuil, 
there is the question of the boundary of Texas ; fourth, there is 
the fugitive-slave bill ; and fit'th. there is the question of the slave- 
trade in the District of Columbia. The President, instead of 
proposing a plan comprehending all the diseases of the country, 
looks only to one. * * * 1 have seen with prolound surprise 
ajul regret, tiie jHjrsistence — for so I am jiaint'ully compelled to 
regard the facts around us — of the Chief Magistrate of the coun- 
try in his own jieculiar [ilan. I think that in the spirit of com- 
promise, the President ought to unite with us. He reconinicnds 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 169 

the ndmission of Califoniin. We nrc williiiG: to ndmit Cnlifornia. 
We go with him as far ns lie goes, and we make its aflmission 
compose a part of a general plan of settlement and compromise, 
wliicli we jiropose to the consideration of the Senate. Tn the 
spirit of compromise which, I trust, does, and which I know 
ought to, animate hoth ends of Pennsylvania-avenne, we had a 
right to snpj)ose, wlien the committee announced in th^ir report, 
that they were satisfied with his recommendation, so far as it 
went, hut that it did not go, in our respectful judgment, far 
enough, and tliat we therefore offered our measure to close up 
the four remaining wounds. I think, that in a spirit of peace 
and concord, and of mutual confidence and co-operation, which 
ought to animate the different departments of the government, 
the President, entertaining tliat constitutional deference to the 
wisdom of Congress wliich he has professed, and ahstainins, as 
he has declared he would ahstain, from any interference with 
its free deliberations, ought, without any disatisfaction, to per- 
mit us to consider what is hest for onr common coimtry. I will 
go a little further in this comparison which I make most pain- 
fully. After the observations which I addressed to the Senate 
a week ago, I did hope and trust there would have been 
a reciprocation from the other end of the avenue, as to the de- 
sire to heal, not one wound only — which being healed would 
exasperate instead of harmonizing the country — but to heal them 
all. I did hope, tliat we should have had some signification in 
some form or other, of the Executive contentment and satisfac- 
tion with the entire plan of adjustment. But instead of concur- 
rence with the committee, on the part of the Executive, we 
have an authentic assurance of his adherence exclusively to his 
own particular scheme. 

"Mr. President, with regard to Utah, there is no government 
whatever, unless it is such as necessity has prompted the i\Ior- 
mons to establisli ; and when you come to New Mexico, what 
government have yon? A military government, by a Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the army ! A Lieutenant-Colonel, a mere snl>ordin- 
ate of the army of the United States, holds the government for 
them, in a time of profound peace ! Stand up. Whig, who can — 
stand up, Democrat, who can — and defend the establishment of a 
military government, in this free and glorious republic, in a time 
of profound peace ! Sir, we had doubts about the authority of the 
late President to do tliis in a time of war, and it was cast as a re- 
proach upon him. But here, in a time of profound peace, it is pro- 
posed by the highest authority, that this government — this mili- 
tary government — and by what authority it has continued since 
the peace, I Icnow not — should be continued indefinitely, till New 
Mexico is prepared to come as a Stale into the Union ! And 
when will that be? * * * And what will become of the 
several obhgations of the treaty of Hidalgo, requiring us to ex- 



170 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

tend the protection of government to the people of Utah and 
New Mexico ?" * * * 



Well might Mr. Clay say, in view of this unexpected opposi- 
tion : " I must own that a hundred times, almost, during the pro- 
gress of this bill, I have been quite ready to yield, and say for one, 
I withdraw from all further efforts. I never have seen a meas- 
ure so much opposed. We exhibit the spectacle of a seesaw, 
putting the least weight on one side, while there is an obstacle 
to the balance on the opposite side. While all parties are, or 
ought to be, desirous of harmonizing the country, and of restor- 
ing tranquillity, difficulties almost insuperable, upon points of 
abstraction, upon points of no earthly practical consequence, 
start up from time to time, to discourage the stoutest heart in any 
effort to accommodate all these difficulties." 

Again he says : '' Mr. President,! find myself in a peculiar and 
painful position, in respect to the defense of this report. I find 
myself assailed by extremists everywhere; by under-currents ; 
by those in high, as well as those in low authority ; but believing 
as I do, that this measure, and this measure only will pass, if 
any* does pass, during the present session of Congress, I shall 
stand up to it, and to this report, against all objections, springing 
from whatever quarter they may." 

When Mr. Bell, of Tennessee, made his speech on tliis meas- 
ure, the 3d of July, he defended the President, and among other 
things, said : <• Especial pains have been taken by senators to 
hold up the antagonism of the ])laii of adjustment presented by 
the Committee of Thirteen, and that of the President, in a way 
to present the issue as one between the Executive and Congress. 
The honorable and dislinguisiied senator from Kentucky (Mr. 
Clay), to my infinite regret, led the way. The honorable sen- 
ator shakes his head." 

]Mr. Clay : "'Will the honorable senator from Tennessee per- 
mit me to interrupt him for a moment?" 

Mr. Bell : " Certainly." 

'Slv. Clay : " It will be recollected by the Senate, and I am 
sure by the senator from Tennessee, that it was a week only, 
or about eight or ten days prior to my delivery of the speech to 
which he refers, that I made a speech as conciliatory toward the 
administration as it was possiI)le for me to find language to put 
it in. Immediately — 1 believe it was the day after the delivery 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 171 

of that speech — the editor of the Republic^ the organ of the 
President, came out with the declaration, that the President ad- 
hered to his own plan. Shortly after this those editors were dis- 
missed, among other reasons, because they approved of the plan 
of tlie Committee. 

" I came here," said Mr. Clay, "with the most anxious dcsii'e 
to co-operate with the Administration in all public measures. 
* * * If that article in the Republic had stood alone, and had 
not been followed up by the subsequent dismissal of the editors of 
that paper ; if I had not known, and did not feel at this moment 
in every vein of my body, the influence which the Administra- 
tion has exerted outside of Congress, and inside of Congress, and 
in both houses of Congress ; if I did not know that the secreta- 
ries and heads of departments, have denounced this measure, and 
that the President himself, in derision had called it the Omnibus 
Bill — it was all these circumstances taken together that led me 
to the conclusion that I would defend the measure ; and, sir, I 
would defend it against a thousand Presidents, be they who 
they may." 

Mr. Bell said : " The old question is presented, whether Mo- 
hammed will go to the mountain, or the mountain shall come to 
Mohammed. I do not undertake to say which is Mahommed, or 
which is the mountain." 

Mr. Clay : '' I beg pardon, I only wanted the mountain to let 
me alone." 

Mr. Bell : " Sir, it was announced, that the President would 
not change his opinion, and this the honorable senator con- 
siders an attack upon the plan of the Committe of Thirteen." 

jVIr. Clay (in his seat) : " Not that alone. There were other 
concurring circumstances. " 

Mr. Bell: "I know it has been said, that one or more of the 
secretaries had been talking against the Compromise." 

Mr. Clay (in his seat) : '' Ah ! Ah !" 

Mr. Bell, however, still bore this testimony, that he believed 
" General Taylor had been influenced in his course upon this 
subject by the highest and noblest motives of duty and patriot- 
ism." Q,uite probable. But General Taylor was a child to Mr. 
Clay on tliis, and on any other question of high statesmanship, 
and it was suitable that he should manifest some deference to 
the combined wisdom of the senate, as expressed in this report. 
His opposition, combined with that which sprung up from other 



172 THE COMrROMISE OF 1850. 

quarters, killed the measure. Bat after his death, the same ob- 
jects were accomplished in separate bills, which were apf)roved 
by Mr. Fillmore. It is doubtful, perhaps, whether they could 
have been accomplished under General Taylor, and the country 
miffht still have been left in a very sad condition of discontent- 
ment, not to say, of portentous inquietude. It is evident enough, 
that, if Congress had stopped with the admission of California, 
as recommended by the President, it would have aggravated the 
diflicnltics in which the country was involved. 

General Taylor died on the 9th of July. On the 17th of the 
same month, Mr. Webster said in the Senate : " There were cir- 
cumstances attending the death of General Taylor, that were so 
fortunate, that, for his own fame and character, and for the grati- 
fication of all to whom he was most dear, he may be said to 
have died fortunately. ' That life is good which answers life's 
great end.' " 

When Mr. Clay made his last set speech on the Compromise 
bill, July 22, vindicating it from the objections that had been 
made to it, and referring to the plan of ihe Executive (General 
Taylor's), some twelve days after General Taylor's death, he 
said : " Allow me to take this occasion — the only suitable one in 
my opinion — of expressing my deep regret and sympathy with 
the family of the illustrious deceased. I had known him, per- 
haps, longer than any other man in Washington, I knew his 
father before him — a most estimable and distinguished citizen of 
Kentucky. I knew the late President of the United States from 
the time he entered the army until his death. He was an honest 

man a brave man. He had covered his own liead with laiu'els, 

and added fame and renown to his country. Without erpressing 
any judgment upon what might have been the just appreciation 
of his administration of the domestic civil affairs of the country , 
if Providence had pei'mitted him to serve out his time, I take 
pleasure in the opportiuiity of saying, in reference to the foreign 
affairs of our Government, that, in all the instances of which 
any knowledge has been obtained by me of the mode in Miiich 
they were conducted, they have mot with my hearty and 
cordial concurrence. If I shall have any occasion to say any 
thing of tbe plan [of settling tbcse domestic dillicnlties] proposed 
by the late President, it will be with the most perfect respect to 
his memory, without a single feeling of unkindness abiding in 
my breast. Peace to his ashes ! and may he at this moment be en- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 173 

jojnns; those blessings in another and a better world, which we 
are all desiring, sooner or later, to attain." 

The enemies of the measure reported by the Committee of 
Thirteen, had given it the name of the " Omnibus bill," which 
gave occasion for some facetious remarks from Mr. Clay, of 
which the following are a specimen : 

"It is said, Mr. President, that this 'Omnibus,' as it is called, 
contains too much. It is not, however, that it has too much in 
it. It has too little, according to the wishes of its ojiponents : 
and I am very sorry that our ' Omnilius' can not carry Mr. Wil- 
mot, though his weight, I am afraid, would break it down, if he 
were put there. This incongruous measure, which has already 
too much matter in it, has not enough for the senator from Ten- 
nessee (Mr. Bell). He wants to put in two or three more States 
from Texas." 

Mr. Clay spoke of the meeting of extremes in this debate — 
the slaveholders of the South and the abolitionists of the North. 
Both opposed the bill. He said these extremes seemed to be in 
mutual consultation. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, answered : " There 
certainly have been frequent consultations between senators from 
the Southern States upon questions involving the dignity, honor, 
and safety of the Southern States, involved, as they conceived, 
in the provisions of this bill." Whereupon, Mr. Clay, who had 
been accused of holding consultations with his political oppo- 
nents, replied : " And so, undoubtedly, did our consultation relate 
to the dignity, honor, and safety of the Union, and of the Con- 
stitution of our country." [Loud applause from the gallery, 
which was rebuked by the Chair.] 

As manifested by the effect of this repanee in the gallery of 
the Senate Chamber, the popular sympathies were all on the side , 
of Mr. Clay, in this protracted debate. It was so throughout the 
country. 

Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, and Mr. Berrien, of Georgia, 
both of whom opposed the bill, had both expressed the hope 
that Mr. Clay might acquire enduring fame for his commend- 
able zeal. JNL*. Clay replied : 

"Mr. President, I do not think about myself. I care not 
about myself. Neither men nor mankind have lienors or offices in 
their gift which I expect, which I want, which 1 desire. Poised, 
as I feel myself in some degree, at my time of life, between 
heaven and earth, my hopes, my faith, my confidence, are to- 



174 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

ward the former ; and I only desire, while I remain upon earth, 
while I linger here, to perform all the duties which result from 
my connection with that society of which I am an humble 
member. These are the feelings with which I came here. I 
desire no eclat whatever. * * * As to the fate of this 
measure, I am prepared for it, whatever it may be. If defeat 
awaits it, I will not yet despair of the country. I shall have the 
consolation of knowing that I have sought, most anxiously, to 
perform my duty, my high duty to my country, and to tlio Con- 
stitution. 1 shall feci no other regrets connected with its failure, 
if that should be its fortune, than those which belong to this dis- 
tracted people and to this menaced country. On my own ac- 
count, none — none, whatever, shall I have occasion to feel, in 
the smallest degree." 

When Mr. Webster observed that some senators felt bound by 
their instructions for the Wilmot Proviso, against their convic- 
tions, he said: '-I have sometimes thought, when consider- 
ing on this subject of the Wilmot Proviso, that Congress itself 
needs the Wilmot. I have thought that if the genius of Ameri- 
can liberty, or some angel from a higher sphere, could fly over 
the country with a scroll bearing the words, and with power to 
give effect to those Avords, and those words should be, ' Be it 
ordained, that neither in the Senate, nor in the House of Repre- 
sentatives in Congress assembled, there shall be slavery, nor in- 
voluntary servitude, except for crime,' it would be a glorious and 
consoling honor and mercy to the Constitution of the country. 
Spirit of Nathan Dane ! How couldst thou take so much pains 
to set men's limbs and motion free in the Territories, and never 
deign to add even a proviso for the freedom of conscience and 
opinion in the halls of Congress?" 

In all quarters Mr. Clay had continually to encounter objec- 
tions to compromise, as if it were a sacrifice of principle. Here 
we have another of his replies on this point : 

" What is a compromise ? It is a work of mutual concession 

an agreement in which there are reciprocal stipulations — a 

work ill which, for the sake of peace and concord, one jiarty 
abates his extreme demands in consideration of the abatement of 
extreme demands by the other party. It is a measure of mu- 
tual concession, of mutual sacrifice. * * * Who were the 
parties in that greatest of all compromises, the Constitution of 
the United States? * * * The Constitution under which 
we sit at this moment, is the work of their hands — a great, a 
memorable, a magnificent compromise." 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 175 

He also continually met with the averment, from the South, 
that the Federal Constitution carried slavery, and was hound to 
protect slavery in the Territories. Although we have cited him 
before on this point, the following has some new features : 

"There are gentlemen who maintain that, by virtue of the 
Constitution, the right to carry slaves south of that line (36' 30 ) 
already exists. If 1 had not heard that opinion avowed, I should 
have regarded it one of the most extraordinary assumptions, and 
the most indefensible position that was ever taken by man. The 
Constitution neitlier created, nor does it continue slavery. 
Slavery existed independent of the Constitution, and antecedent 
to the Constitution ; and it was dependent in the States, not upon 
the will of Congress, but upon the laws of the respective States. 
The Constitution is silent and passive upon the subject of the 
institution of slavery ; or, rather, it deals with the fact as it 
exists in the States, without having created it, or continued it, or 
being responsible for it in the slightest degree. * * * jf 
slaves are voluntarily carried into such a jurisdiction, [where 
slavery does not exist] their chains instantly drop off, and they 
become free, emancipated, liberated from their bondage. * * * 
If the Constitution possesses the paramount authority attributed 
to it, [that is, to protect slavery in the Territories,] the laws even 
of the free States of the Union would yield to that paramount 
authority. * * * You can not i)ut your finger on the part 
of the Constitution which conveys the right or the power to 
carry slaves from one of the States of the Union to any Terri- 
tory of the United States." 

One would think that such passages as the above were suffi- 
ciently clear to define Mr. Clay's position on this question, and 
that his reasoning is not less conclusive. In the preceding chap- 
ter we have had occasion to notice forms of the same argument, 
to the same effect. The second resolution of Mr. Clay, brought 
forward on the 29th of January, declares the lex loci of Mexico, 
as to the abolition of slavery in that republic ; and Mr. Clay, as 
in the language above cited, took occasion frequently, during 
this long-protracted debate, which continued several months, at 
intervals, to impress this fact on the mind of the Senate. 
Though he did not insist that the principle of his second resolu- 
tion should be incorporated into the report of the Committee of 
Thirteen, as he could not obtain a majority, he nevertheless in- 
sisted on the fact, whenever the debate led him on that ground ; 
and he carried out the principle, appertaining to the fact, as one 
of Public Law, excluding slavery from the TeiTitories acquired 



• 



ITG THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

from Mexico, except as it should be introduced by a special act 
of Congress, or by the fundamental law of a new State. He ad- 
mitted and claimed, as we have liefore seen in the preceding 
chapter, that Congress could establish or abolish slavery in the 
Territories. Bat there was no danger that Congress would es- 
tablish slavery in the Territories, or in any part of them : first,' 
because the North would never consent, and the South would 
not dare to. do it. It would be admitting, on the part of the 
South, that Congress might touch the subject of slavery, and leg- 
islate it out of the Union. In the District of Columbia, Con- 
gress might touch, and even abolish it ; for it has " exclusive juris- 
diction there for all purposes whatsoever." So Mr. Clay main- 
tained, though he thought it " inexpedient" to abolish slavery 
there, without the consent of Maryland, etc., as declared in one 
of his resolutions. But it was a matter of special pains with 
him, first to establish the fact, that slavery had been abolished 
in Mexico, and next to show, that no slaveholder could carry his 
slave into the Territories acquired from Mexico, under the ^Egis 
of the Federal Constitution ; in other words, that a slave could 
not be held as property, within the jurisdiction of the United 
States, outside of the jurisdiction of a slave -state, or of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, unless he were a fugitive. This, beyond all 
question, is the ground occupied and vindicated by Mr. Clay ; 
and it appears in many forms during this great debate. 

Toward the conclusion of Mr. Clay's argument on the 22d of 
July, when, as Chairman of the Committee of Thirteen, he un- 
dertook to answer the objections that had been made to the 
bill, he said : 

" Mr. President, I approach now the question of what the con- 
sequences must be of the defeat of this measure nov.' before the 
Senate, and what the consequence will be of the successlul sup- 
port of the measure by Congress. If the bill be deteated, and 
no equivalent measure he passed, and we go home, in what con- 
dition do we leave this free and glorious people ? In regard to 
Texas, there is danger of two civil wars. * * * Assuming 
that Texas will move with military array upon New Mexico, 
there will probably be resistance on the part of the General Gov- 
ernment to the entrance of the troops of Texas into the limits 
of New Mexico. * * * We know that the Administration 
[General Taylor's] which lias just passed out of power, would 
in that contingency, have repelled the attack made by Texas. 
If the present Aihnmistration [Mr. Fihnore's] should feel it in- 
cumhent upon itself to repel such an invasion, consequences 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 177 

which I am about to portray, are at least possible, if not likely 
to occur." 

Mr. Clay went on to depict the sympathy with Texas, which 
would pervade the entire South, and how the people of the slave 
States would rush to arms in aid of Texas, against the Federal 
forces — and who could tell the horrors and consequences of such 
a contest ? " Why," said Mr. Clay, '' it was only the other day, 
that a member, returned from the Nashville Convention [Mr. 
Rhett], addressed, we are told, the people of Charleston, South 
Carolina, proposing to hoist the standard of disimion } * * * 
Mr. President, I have no patience for hearing this bravado, come 
from what source it may. At the same time I am not disposed 
to underrate its importance, as one of many cotemporaneous 
events. There are certain great interests in this country which 
are sympathetic, contagious. * * * If a war breaks out be- 
tween Texas and the troops of the United States, on the upper 
Rio Grande, there are ardent, enthusiastic spirits of Arkansas, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, that will flock to the stand- 
ard of Texas, contending, as they will believe, for slave territory ; 
and they will be drawn on, State after State, in all human prob- 
ability, from the banks of the Rio Grande, to the banks of that 
river which flows by the tomb of Washington. ■•'•■ "■•'•" •••'■ 

" The honorable senator who usually sits before me (Mr. 
Hale), has told us more than once, that, if you pass this bill, you 
do not hush agitation ; you even increase it. "■■•■ * •■•• The 
abolitionists, INIr. President, live by agitation. It is their meat, 
their bread, the air which they breathe, and if they saw, in its in- 
cipient state, a measure giving them more of that meat, bread, and 
air, do you believe they would oppose its adoption ? Do you not 
believe that they would hail [Hale] it as a blessing ? [Great 
laughter]. Why, Mr. President, there is not an abolitionist in 
the United States, that is not opposed to this bill. And why ? 
They see their doom as certain as there is a God in heaven, who 
sends his Providential dispensations to calm the threatening storm, 
and to tranquilize agitated men. As certain as God exists in 
heaven, your business [turning to Mr. Hale], your vocation is 
gone. "••'■ * "•••" W'liat ! increased agitation, and the agitators 
against the plan ! It is an absurdity. * * * 

" Let us consider the measure in detail. Let California be 
admitted into the Union — will they agitate about that? Es- 
tablish the Territorial Governments — will they agitate about 

12 



178 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

that? When the Texas boundary question is settled — will 
they agitate about that ? They have every probabiHty of hav- 
ing New Mexico dedicated to free soil — will they agitate about 
that ? About a Constitutional fugitive slave bill ? * Will they 
agitate about the slave-trade in the District of Columbia? [when 
it is abolished, as proposed]. Then what can they agitate about, 
supposing the whole system of measures to be carried out? 
They might agitate a little about not getting the Wilmot Proviso 
fastened to the bill ; and about not getting the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. What then, in the name of heaven, 
will they agitate about, if these five measures are carried ? Whom 
will they agitate ? Who will be their auditory ? * * * 

" 1 speak not of Free-soilers, who from principle are opposed to 
the extension of slavery, but of that fanatical, desperate band 
who call themselves, I don't know what — liberty-men, or some- 
thing of the kind — and who have declared that this Union ousht 
not to exist — who would strike down the pillars upon which 
stands the most glorious edifice that was ever erected by the hand 
of man, self-government — and who would crush amid the ruins 
of the fall of this people, all the hopes and expectations of our- 
selves and mankind ; men who would go into the temples of the 
Holy God, and drag from their sacred posts the ministers who are 
preaching His Gospel, for the comfort of mankind and their salva- 
tion hereafter, and burn the temples themselves — thej/ might agi- 
tate ; men, who, if their power were equal to their malignity, 
would seize the sun in the heavens, drag it from the position 
where it keeps the planetary system in order, and replunge the 
world in chaos and confusion, to carry out their single idea — (hey, 
perhaps, might agitate. But the great body of the people of the 
United States will acquiesce in this adjustment, after near nine 
months of anxious and arduous struggle. No, sir ; they may 
threaten agitation, talk of it here and elsewhere ; but their occu- 
pation is gone. * * * The nation wants repose. It pants 
for repose, and entreats you to give it peace and tranquility. 
* * * The iMissouri Compromise was hailed Avith joy and 
exultation. The bells rang, the cannons were fired, and every 
demonstration of joy was made throughout the land. But then, 
as now, when the bill was approaching its passage, it was said, 
' It will not quell the storm, nor give peace to the country.' " 

* The country acquiesced ia it, till the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 179 

Mr. Clay went on to speak of the results of the Tariff Com- 
promise of 1833, how it pacified the country. He added : " I be- 
lieve this measm-e is tlie dove of peace, which, taking its flight 
from the dome of this Capitol, will carry the glad tidings of 
assured peace and restored harmony to the remotest extremities 
of this distracted land. * * '■' And now let us go to the 
limpid fountain of unadulterated patriotism, and performing a 
solemn lustration, return divested of all selfish, sinister, and sor- 
did passions, and think only of our God, our country, our con- 
sciences, and our glorious Union — that Union without which we 
shall be torn into hostile fragments, and sooner or later become 
the victims of military despotism, or foreign domination." 

Mr. Barnwell, of South Carolina, saw fit to reply to Mr. Clay's 
reference to the speech made at Charleston, by a member of the 
Nashville Convention, who proposed to raise the flag of disunion, 
to Avhich Mr. Clay rejoined : '• I said nothing of the character of 
Mr. Rhett — for I might as well name him — I know him person- 
ally, and have some respect for him. But, if he pronounced 
the sentiment attributed to him, of raising the standard of dis- 
union, of resistance to the common Government, whatever he 
has been, if he follows up that declaration by corresponding 
overt acts, he will be a traitor, and I hope he will meet 
WITH the fate of A TRAITOR." [Great applause in the galleries, 
with difficulty suppressed by the Chair.] Mr. Clay continued : 
" I have heard with pain and regret a confirmation of the remark 
I made, that the sentiment of disunion is becoming familiar. I 
hope it is confined to South Carolina. I do not regard as my 
duty what the honorable senator seems to regard as his. If 
Kentucky, to-morrow, should unfurl the banner of resistance 
unjustly, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a para- 
mount allegiance to the whole Union — a subordinate one to my 
own State. When my State is right, when it has a cause for re- 
sistance, when tyranny, and wrong, and oppression, insupport- 
able, arise, I will then share her fortunes. But if she summon 
me to the battle-field, or to support her, in any cause that is un- 
just, against the Union, never, were;' will I engage with her in 
such a cause." 

The speech from which the above extracts are taken, was de- 
livered on the 22d of July, nearly six months after Mr. Clay in- 
troduced his resolutions of Compromise, as displayed in chapter 



180 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

sixth. This was his last great speech, and it consumed a day 
in answering the objections to the bill, which was made incum- 
bent on him as Chairman of the Committee. On the 8th of 
May, he made a great speech of two hours and a half. From 
the time he brought forward his resolutions, the 29th of January, 
to the 31st of July, when the bill passed, with nothing in it 
but the Territory of Utah, Mr. Clay had been on his feet 
in this debute seventy times — not always to say much, but fre- 
quently called out in some of his most forcible speeches. Every 
time that the subject of the bill was the order of the day, he 
was at his post, watching with intensity the action of the mind 
of the Senate, and embracing every opportunity to put forward 
the measure. It has been seen what opposition he had to en- 
counter, springing up in new forms, and at every stage. But 
the movement which his own hand commenced, never flagged ; 
and the final vote on the 31st of July, which had stricken every 
thing from the bill, but a Territorial Government for Utah, and 
which seemed to be a defeat, was nevertheless a victory. For 
the Senate did not come to this conclusion without having made 
up their minds to carry out, in separate bills, every thing pro- 
posed by the Committee of Thirteen, and this was perfectly un- 
derstood. There was a nominal defeat, and yet a glorious tri- 
umph. The irresistible iulluence of Mr. Clay, so long and so 
well sustained, had successfully combated faction in all its forms, 
and converted opposition into a reluctant auxiliary. He had so 
shaped his argument, and had such facts to enforce it, that the 
Senate did not dare to take the responsibility of leaving the 
country in such a distracted state as they found it in at the 
opening of the 31st Congress. They did not dare to turn away, 
one point of the compass, from the course which Mr. Clay had in- 
dicated. The factious had indeed the satisfaction of being able 
to say, the bill was defeated. So it was. But they knew too 
well, that Mr. Clay was not defeated. They knew too well, 
that nothing remained for them, but to carry out the plan of the 
Committee of Thirteen, in separate bills. The shifting aspects 
of the questions, as the result of time and debate, had by this 
time superseded the necessity of grouping several objects in the 
same bill. The moral machinery constructed by Mr. Clay, in 
this long-jn-otracted effort, was obliged to move onward to the 
grand result, even though he were not there to see to it. His 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 181 

health had broken down, and he was obhged to leave Washing- 
ton Oil the 2d of August, and repaired to Newport, for sea air and 
bathing.* 

* It should be observed, that the ineasuro, or measure?, reported by the 
Conunittee of Thirteen, consisteil ftf three bills: First, a bill to admit California, 
to organize the Territories of New Mexico and Utah, and to settle the bounda- 
ries of Texas ; next, a bill for the recovery of fugitive slaves ; and third, a bill 
to abolish the slave traile in the District of Columbia. It was the first of these 
bUls, which was first taken up, which occasioned the long debate, and which 
was passed on the 31st of July, with every thing stricken out, except the or- 
ganization of a Territorial Government for Utah. 

Mr. Ciay had said, there are three ways of killing a bill : one by rejecting it 
on its merits; the secoml, by amendments; and the tliird, by speaking against 
time. This bill was killed by amendments. We have not taken pains to count 
them ; for they were almost countless, running along through the history of 
the debate. Mr. Benton, for example, would bring in a batch of a baker's 
dozen at a time, each to be debated and decided seriatim. The amendments 
finally struck out all but Utah. 

The reason of the Coiimiittee of Thirteen for connecting the Territories, and 
setthng the boundary of Texas, with the admission of California-, was to avoid the 
Wilraot Proviso in the House of Representatives. But the weeks and months of 
delay and debate, and the death of President Taylor, had produced a changed state 
of feeling in both branches of Congress. Mr. Clay's argument, from time to time 
presented, had convinced all, that the measures proposed by the Committee of 
Tliirteen must all be passed, and Mr. Fillmore was not committed, whether they 
went together, or separately. When, therefore, the first bill of the Committee 
of Thirteen failed, it failed with the pei feet understanding that all its parts would 
be carried out. It was, therefore, a triuin[th, not a defeat. The last two bills, 
regarding the recovery of fugitive slaves, and the abohtion of the slave trade in 
the District of Columbia, had not been taken up. It was also understood that 
these would be passed, and so they were. Mr. Clay had fulfilled his mission, 
and the state of his health required him to leave for a time. All his resolutions, 
as originally offered, except those which were merely declaratory, were incor- 
porated in these bills. His triumph, therefore, Wiis complete. Whatever merit 
attaches to these measures, as finally passed, and whatever of good they brought 
to the country, had their origin in Mr. Clay's statesman-like conceptions, and 
were chiefly the fruit of his indefatigable and untiring endeavors. The country 
was tranquilized, and even the North acquiesced in the fugitive slave bill, 
though hard to digest. The beneficent results of the Compromise of 1850, 
would, doubtless, have continued, if the nefarious Kansas-Nebraska bill had 
not, in 1854, opened all the wounds afresh, and aggravated them a thousand 
fold.* 

* Appendix, Note D. page 354. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE COMPROMISE OF 185 0. 

ilr. Clay the Chieftain. — The Defeat a Victory. — Mr. Clay's Resolutions all carried 
out. — Mr. Clay's position in the Compromise toward the North and South. — ^The 
lex loci of the new Territories. — The Virginia Resolutions of '98. — The nature of 
Compromise legislation. — The obnoxious features of the I'ugitive Slave Law. — The 
Compromises are Covenants. 

Although Mr. Clay, after a few weeks' absence at NeM'port, 
appeared again in the Senate toward the close of the first session 
of the 31st Congress, to assist in the consummation of the Compro- 
mise of 1850 ; although he was at his post at the second session 
of this Congress, and took a somewhat active part in the River 
and Harbor bill, especially toward the close of the session, to 
prevent its defeat — though it was defeated by amendments and 
speaking against time ; and although he appeared again for the 
last time, in the 32d Congress, in a feeble and dechning state of 
health, never to return to Ashland, except in his collhi, he had 
done the great work, which renders the closing period of his 
public life memorable, in the first session of the 31st Congress, 
the details of which are given in the preceding chapters. It 
has been seen tliat he was the prime mover, the leading advo- 
cate, and the great chieftain of the Compromise of 1850, although 
he had important coadjutors and auxiliaries in both the two great 
political parties of the country, headed by Mr. Webster of the 
Whigs, and General Cass of the Democrats, who merged their 
party feelings in the sacred cause of restoring peace again be- 
tween the North and South, and re-establishing public tranquil- 
ity. But Mr. Clay was the recognized leader. He took the 
burden of that position on his shoulders, and bore it through in 
trium])h, against such an array of opposition as was never be- 
fore mustered in the Senate of the United States — an opposition 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 183 

constantly multiplying its devices and sliit'ling its forms, and 
persistent to the last. In its dying struggle, it flom-ished the 
banner of victory, and seemed to have achieved it. It certainly 
died with its colors nailed to the mast. But, as we have seen, 
the bill was lost — all but the territorial government of Utah — 
only to spring up from the urn containing its ashes, like the 
fabled phacuix. The momentum which the other parts of it had 
acquired, by the argument of Mr. Clay, so often renewed and so 
eloquently sustained, was irresistible. It did not require even 
his presence for the carrying out of the other parts of this meas- 
ure, in separate bills, and he had nothiug to do with it, except, 
on his return, to fill out the blank for the compensation of 
Texas, with $10,000,000, for the surrender of her claims to 
New Mexico. 

Neither the fugitive slave law, nor the bill for the abolition of 
the slave trade in the District of Columbia, was included in the 
bill which was lost on the 31st of July ; for they were reported 
as separate measures by the Committee of Thirteen, and had 
not come under debate. A bill for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, had been introduced in the early part of the session, and 
was pending during this long debate on the first measure of the 
Committee of Thirteen ; but, in anticipation of a new form, 
from the hands of a special committee, it was not debated. The 
form reported by the Committee of Thirteen, was passed in Mr. 
Clay's absence. Hence we have little argument from him on 
that subject, except in the report of the Committee which con- 
tained an important amendment, not found in the law, which 
was designed to secure to the alleged fugitive the right of trial 
by jury, if he claimed to be a free man. Mr. Clay is alleged to 
have expressed his regret for the more obnoxious parts of this 
law, and to have said, that he reluctantly yielded to some of the 
Southern members of the Committee, in agreeing to tliera. 
Being a man of compromise, he was forced to compromise in the 
Committee. But as we have before seen, from his own words, 
he was in favor of having this law etfective for the accomplish- 
ment of the prescribed object of the Constitution, and he would 
"go as far as the farthest" for that end. 

Mr. Clay was present when the bill for the suppression of 
the slave trade in the District of Columbia was passed, and 
of course advocated it, so far as necessary, and voted for it. 

"We have said that all Mr. Clay's resolutions, which were 



184 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

brought forward by him the 29th of January, were incorporated 
in tlie Compromise of 1850, except those which were merely 
declaratory. The admission of California, which was the sub- 
ject of the first resolution, was consummated. The first two 
members of the second resolution, to wit, that " slavery does not 
exist by law, and is not likely to be introduced, in any of the 
territory acquired by tlie United States," etc., are, as will be seen, 
merely declaratory ; and although Mr. Clay desired they might 
be affirmed, as a basis for non-action in the way of legislation 
on slavery in those Territories, they were not reported on by the 
Committee ; but the latter part of the same resolution, recom- 
mending the organization of these Territories, was acted on and 
carried out. The third resolution, regarding the boundary of 
Texas, and the fourth, touching compensation to Texas for the 
relinquishment of certain territorial claims, were also carried out 
in the Compromise. The fiftii resolution, that " it is inexpe- 
dient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia," was a mere 
declaration, and it was not acted on. But the sixth, on pro- 
hibiting the slave trade in the District, passed into a law. The 
seventh, on the recovery of fugitive slaves, also passed into a 
law ; but the eighth and last, on the power of Congress over the 
slave-trade between the States, was merely declaratory, and was 
not acted on. Every thing, therefore, in Mr. Clay's resolutions, 
that was a fit subject of positive legislation, was incorporated in 
the Compromise of 1850, and nothing else. Mr. Bell's reso- 
lutions, except so far as they coincided with Mr. Clay's, were 
not touched. 

Here we have renewed and indubitable evidence, not only of 
the genius of Mr. Clay adapted to such great exigences, but of 
his statesman-like and unerring sagacity in devising precisely the 
measures which the state of the nation required, and which he 
himself, by his eloquence and by his unrivaled tact, could sustain 
before the Senate, before Congress, and before the nation. He 
could be opposed — was opposed, skillfully, perseveringly, almost 
violently — but he could not be baffled. He had the North and 
the South to contend with, and that, too, in their most violent 
spasms of political strife. Ofttimes he was forced to fly into the 
face, into the very jaws, of a cerberus on the one hand, and of a 
Cerberus on the other ; and the maimer in which he silenced 
their barkings ain\ bowlings, and laid bis hand upon the heads 
of such opponents, subduing their madness and sometimes mak- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 185 

ing them even kind, is characteristic only of himself. The) felt 
the power of his charm, and gave way to it. His mion, too, as 
he turned his face toward them, awed them into fear. Armed 
with truth and right, lie was conscious of the strength of his 
position. 

After liaving fought against the annexation of Texas, -and de- 
nounced the war with Mexico, as a plan for the extension of 
slavery, and seeing that the plan was so far accomplished, and 
the victors stretching out their hand to chuch the prize, it was 
no small thing to turn and say to them, " You have lost CaHfor- 
nia, and the lex loci of the territories acquired from Mexico is 
against you by the decrees of the Public Law of the civilized 
world. You cannot enter those territories with your slaves, and 
I for one will never consent to it." All this, and much more of 
the same kind, was in the mouth of Mr. Clay, during this long 
debate, when he spoke to the South. 

And what did he say to the North ? " If you desire peace, 
give up your Wilmot Proviso. You have that in your free Cali- 
fornia, in the lex loci of the new Territories, and in the ordin- 
ances of nature there, which is worth more than a thousand 
' Wilmots.' The Proviso is not a principle, but a means to an 
end — an end guarantied without it. Waive it for the sake of 
peace. Let us have our runaway slavey, which the Constitution 
has pledged to us. Be content not to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia now, and we will give you the suppression 
of the slave-trade there." 

In this manner Mr. Clay had to speak to both parties. They 
understood him. In every thing he said he aimed to be prac- 
tical ; and he never failed to be so. The South understood, and 
the North understood. It was no time to deal in equivoques, 
and Mr. Clay never traded in that art. A crisis had come on 
the country, and it was to be met — must be met. 

And Mr. Clay was an old man. He had done with political 
life, and with political strifes. He had served the country half 
a century, and conferred more benefit upon it, than he had re- 
ceived honors from it. The score of debt and credit, in a 
reckoning of this kind, was all in his favor — greatly so. He 
owed the country nothing but love and fidelity to her interests, 
and large measures of these were treasured up in his great heart 
and lofty mind. There was no man in the Senate, or in the 
country, that occupied a like position, or that was so well en- 



186 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 

titled to speak and to be heard — none that would be entertained 
with so much deference, respect, and veneration. Of this he 
could iMit be partly conscious. He at least understood his rights 
— such rights as long service, great experience, and venerable 
age confer. As he himself said, he ''stood on the margin of 
two worlds," to give his poor advice to the present, and to hope 
in the future. It was rich advice, fraught with good to the 
present and to future generations. 

On account of the permanent practical importance of these 
questions, it may be useful to reconsider some of the points 
made by Mr. Clay in his resolutions and in his argument. 

First, the lex loci of the territories acquired from Mexico, as 
determined by the abolition of slavery in that republic in 1S29. 
The aimouncement of this fact by Mr. Clay, supported as it is 
by historical evidence, is as good as if that branch of his second 
resolution had been affirmed by the Senate of the United States. 
Such an aflirmation would not have added to its force at all, 
though it might, and probably would have had some etiect on 
those who were determined not to admit the fact, and who claim 
the right of taking their slaves into these and other territories. 
The reasoning of Mr. Clay, based on Public Law, and applied 
to the lex loci of the newly-acquired Territories, is irresistible ; 
and however it may be for a time silenced by the passionate de- 
clamation and actual trespass of interested parties, who take 
their slaves into those Territories, the lex loci and the Public 
Law of the world will ultimately prevail. It is impossible that 
such a circumscribed and impotent interest should overcome the 
opinion of mankind. The moral power of wrong, and of a 
great wrong to the rights of man, must, in the long run, yield 
to the moral power of right, sustained by the feeling of the civil- 
ized world. This latter power is precisely the agency that will 
vindicate the lex loci of the Territories acquired from Mexico by 
the treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, against the pretensions of any 
slave-holders that may rush into them, claiming the protection 
of the Federal Constitution. " You cannot," says Mr. Clay, 
"point to a part of the Constitution" that will atlovd such pro- 
tection. He declares the doctrine an absurdity, and proves it so. 
For, if the Constitution carries the lex loci of the fifteen slave 
Stales iiuo the Territories, it must also carry there the lex loci 
of the fifteen free States, to neutralize each other. Moreover, 
by the same reasoning, it would carry slavery into the free 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 187 

States ! Such was Mr. Clay's method of exposing this ab- 
surdity. 

The Virginia doctrine of State-rights disposes of this question 
with equal brevity, which is, if we rightly understand it, that 
all powers not delegated specifically to the General Government, 
belong to the States; and that, outside of these powers, the 
States are sovereign within their respective jurisdictions. It would 
indeed be a most latitudinarian construction of the Federal Con- 
stitution, to make it carry slavery into the Territories, and pro- 
tect it there. We may ask with Mr. Clay, where is the specific 
power? "You can not point to it." And can the slave States 
carry slavery there ? Slavery is a creature of municipal law, not 
of Federal law, and it has vitality only where municipal law im- 
parts it. Beyond tlie jurisdiction of slave States, there is, there 
can be, no slavery in the United States, except in the District of 
Columbia. This is Mr. Clay's doctrine, and he declared, as we 
have seen, that he would never be responsible for carrying it 
beyond these limits. In the circumstances in which he was 
placed, in carrying forward the Compromise of 1850, he seemed 
to think it incumbent upon him to utter these sentiments, 
clearly, boldly, emphatically, so that he could not be misunder- 
stood ; and he did so. He reiterated it in the ears of the South. 
Whatever they did, for or against the Compromise, he did not 
wish them to do any thing with their eyes closed to this great 
truth, or to its collateral bearings. His language to the South 
was, the Constitution will protect you, where it has promised to 
do so, but no where else ; and he specified the points of such 
guaranty as three, to wit, the recognition of the fact of slavery 
under the municipal laws of the slave States, its right to be re- 
presented in Congress, and the right of recovering fugitives. 
Beyond this the Federal Constitution promised nothing, could 
do nothing, would do nothing, in behalf of slavery. Mr. Clay 
said he had always been a disciple of the Virginia Resolutions of 
'98, and he applied them to this very subject. That Congress 
had power to legislate slavery into the Territories, Mr. Clay did 
not deny ; he maintained it, though he would never help them 
to do it. For the same reason lie maintained, that Congress had 
power to abolish slavery in the District of Cohmibia, though lie 
did not think it expedient, except upon the contingencies speci- 
fied in his fifth resohition. But the power of Congress to es- 
tablish and to abolish slavery iu the Territories is one thing, 



188 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

and the silent operation of the Federal Constitution to carry and 
protect it tiiere, witiiout any legislation of Congress, is quite 
another tiling. There is no such power as the latter in the ^ 
Constitution, nor the slightest semhlance of it. No attenuated 
construction of the imphcation of an implication, could reflect 
such a shadow. Above all, the Virginia resolutions of '98 inter- 
pose their solemn veto. 

Although Mr. Clay contemplated a fugitive slave law, as a 
part of the Compromise measures, and expressed that purpose in 
one of his resolutions; although he was chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Thirteen, and reported a bill to that effect ; although 
he said he '•' would go as far as the furthest," in carrying out the 
Constitution which guarantied the restoration of fugitive slaves ; 
although he never denied his responsibility as a member and as 
Chairman of the Committee that reported the bill, nevertheless, 
Mr. Clay had no hand in drafting the bill, no voice in the dis- 
cussion upon it, and he was absent when it was passed. In 
courtesy to Mr. Mason of Virginia, who was a member of the 
Committee, and who is understood to have drawn up the bill, 
Mr. Clay reported it as it came from Mr. Mason's hands, with a 
view, no doubt, of amending it on its passage. But he was ab- 
sent, from ill health. It is well understood that he felt it was 
objectionable, and that it would be obnoxious to the people of 
the free States, He desired to have it eifectivc, but would 
doubtless have been glad if it had been framed ditrerently, so as 
to accomplish the object without alTordiug any just ground of 
complaint with those wlio would be ready to admit that the Con- 
stitution in this particular should be carried out ; and although 
we never talked with Mr. Clay on the subject, we can readily 
imagine some of those features of the bill, which, as a practical 
man, he would have been glad to have left out. 

Nevertheless, prior to the enactment of the Nebraska-Kansas 
law of 1851, the people of thirteen or fourteen of the sixteen 
free States, liad very generally acquiesced in the fugitive slave 
law, and the com[)laiiits of the other two or three free States 
were gradually subsiding. Hut for the repeal of the ^Missouri 
Compromise of 1820, there is every probability that the country 
would have settled down iu jjeace under tlie Compromise of 
18.31). The reader will he interested iu perusing the letter in 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 189 

the Appendix,* from Mr. Clay to sundry citizens of New York, 
written in October, 1851, on the subject of the Compromise of 
the year previous, and on tlie state and prospects of the country 
at that time. He says : " It was not supposed by the authors 
and supporters of the Compromise, in the last Congress, that the 
adoption of the series of measures that composed it, would secure 
the unanimous concurrence of all. Tlieir reasonable hopes were 
confined to a great majority of the people of the United States, 
and their hopes have not been disappointed.'" This is doubtless 
a fair statement of the feeling of the country in 1851. It would 
appear from this letter, that the subject of the greatest concern 
with Mr. Clay, at that time, was the temper of South Carolina, 
which induced him to make a somewhat elaborate argument on 
Nullification and Secession, defining the ditference between the 
two things, and ^Teclaring his opinion how they should be treated, 
if either or both should actually occur. He did not then 
imagine that there would be any more difficulty with the fugi- 
tive slave law in the free States, such as has arisen since the en- 
actment of the Nebraska-Kansas law. Mr. Clay always had 
great confidence in the loyalty of the free States to the Union, 
and instead of speaking disrespectfully of their feelings on the 
subject of slavery, he declares in one of the extracts from his 
speeches, in the Appendix, that " we all honor them." Mr. Clay 
was himself an Emancipationist.! But we need not say that he 
was one of the strongest of Union men, on the basis of the Fed- 
eral Constitution and laws ; and believing, as he did, that the 
carrying out of the Constitution by a legislation adequate for the 
recovery of fugitive slaves, was necessaiy for the preservation of 
the Union, he advocated the fugitive slave law. 

If a Northern man, Mr. Webster, for example, willing to 
give the South the benefit of the Constitution in this particular, 
had drawn up this law, he would probably have made it vastly 
more eflective for the object in view, than to have had it 
done by a Southern man and a slaveholder, who could not aj> 
preciate the feelings of the people of the free States, and who 
was likely to offend them in such a document, even when he 
did not intend it. Or, if Mr. Clay had done it, it would doubt- 
less have been unexceptionable to all the people of the free 

* Page 402. t See his Letter to Mr. Pindell, page 346. 



^ 



190 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

States who acknowledged the obhgations of the Constitution. 
But, Mr. Clay had nothing to do with it, and as we have before 
stated, he was absent when it was passed ; but, being passed, un- 
fortunate as it is in form and in some of its features, he felt 
obliged to stand by it as one of the Compromise measures which 
he himself had proposed, and which he regarded as necessary to 
a general pacification. 

In regard to Mr. Clay's views on the subject of introducing 
slaverv, either North or South of the line of 36° 30', where it did 
not exist before, we have already cited enough to show them, in 
the text, and in the appendix. So, also, of his views on the 
same subject, in application to the Territories acquired from 
Mexico. In regard to the latter, he said, in reply to Mr. Soule, 
of Louisiana, when the Territorial government for New Mexico 
was in debate : • 

"If the senator desires, by any indirect means, by any clause 
which goes beyond its proposed object, by any implication 
which can result from that clause, to assert, either that slavery 
exists now in that country (New Mexico), or that it is lawful to 
carry it there under the Constitution of the United States, I, 
for one, can not agree to it. If the senator will agree to the 
modification of the clause, so as to declare that the Territorial 
legislature shall pass no laws respecting the establishment or ex- 
clusion of slavery, I will go for it with pleasure. * * * 
But I can not agree that, under the Constitution of the United 
States, there is a right to carry slaves into New Mexico." 

Of course, the same principles and reasoning apply to all 
Territories where slavery does not exist, or has no title of law. 
Mr. Clay would never allow himself to be misunderstood on this 
point. His uniforai language was, " never, never, will I consent 
to the extension of slavery." 

The position of the Compromise measures of our history, is 
that of the legislation of the country. They are a part of its 
legislation. But they occupy even a higher position. They 
are solemn covenants between opposing parties and conllicting 
interests, by which each party made concessions to the other, for 
the sake of peace and public tranquillity. Each of these Com- 
promises was a sacrifice on the altar of the country, morally and 
religiously sacred, ever to be held, not only under tlie obligations 
of hiw, but of good faith — of a faith i)ledged by the solemn 
vows of parties in conflict and trouble, and who could be recon- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 191 

ciled to each other only by these mutual sacrifices. To repeal or- 
dinary legislation is no breach of faith ; but for one side to break 
up these solemn covenants, without leave of the other, and 
against the remonstrances of the other, is undermining the very 
foundations of morality, and striking a fatal blow on the fabric 
of society. 

A Compromise law, such as characterizes the Compromise 
legislation of this country, is, therefore, of a twofold character. 
In the first place, it has the common attributes and force of any 
other law, enacted by the majority,, and approved by the Chief 
magistrate. Such a law may be repealed in the same way in 
which it was enacted. But a Compromise law has the additional 
character of a covenant, which elevates it above the common 
machinery of legislation, and imparts to it a moral obligation, 
so that it can not be repealed without the consent of the parties 
in covenant ; or if a repeal be forced without such consent, it is a 
violation of faith, and partakes of the nature of crime against the 
well-being of society. Such a repeal involves a most serious and 
grave responsibility, such as no man of sound morals Avould ever 
participate in, if he appreciates its character ; and he is inexcus- 
able, if he does not appreciate it. The sober voice of history, 
allied to the conscience of mankind, will only give tongue to 
the infamy of the transaction, even if the conesquences are not 
of the gravest character. 

• Compromise laws are of a like nature witV the Federal 
Constitution — not, indeed, subject to the same conditions of alter- 
ation, but hardly less difficult of being altered. They are virtu- 
ally an addition to the Constitution — a superinduction — not pass- 
ing under the same name, but having a like force and effect. 
Some of them may differ in the particular of being limited, as 
was the Tariff' Compromise of 1833. But the Missouri Com- 
promise of 1820 was unlimited — •• forever." This is its ex- 
press declaration. If any one can prove that it is not a covenant, 
and that it is of the same character, and that it occupies the 
same position, with all other legislation, then it could be altered 
or repealed, as any other law may be, l)y a majority of the na- 
tional Legislature, without a violation of faith. But if our Com- 
promise laws have the additional character of a covenant, beyond 
the common character of legislation, then, clearly, the parties to 
them must be consulted before any alteration can be made, or a 
repeal enacted. 



192 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

As Mr. Clay has been called " the man of Compromise," as he 
inaugmated the principle and established tiie system, and as 
Compromise was his last great work, as set forth in these pages, 
which in its conception, was tht greatest and most important 
Compromise in the history of American legislation, it can hardly 
be regarded other than pertinent, in the history of his life, to at- 
tempt to elncidate the great principle, of the application of which 
he may be said to be the author, and which constitutes so prom- 
inent and so important a part of American history. Whether our 
interpretation of that principle be correct, the reader will judge i 
and whether we rightly represent Mr. Clay's view of it, the 
reader will also judge. But of the fact, that the genius of Mr. 
Clay, in adaptation to the state of the country at different periods, 
inaugurated that great principle, developed it into form, and, by 
his agency and influence, incorporated it with American legisla- 
tion, as a practical and important element, there can be no doubt. 
We say, it was the fruit of his genius. In every instance in 
which he employed it, he sprung it on the nation, not as one 
that lies in wait to catch prey, but as a beneficent agent sent 
down from heaven, to quiet a great social and political agitation, 
by means which nothing but a creative genius could have de- 
vised. When no one else could see how a constitutional and 
legal remedy could be found, he touches a secret spring, which 
puts the whole fabric of the Constitution in motion, for the ac- 
complishment of the desired end ; and all is peace again. It is 
Constitution and law operating in a new form ; but the parties 
to it are charged to remember, that this is not only law, but a 
covenant that is never to be disturbed within the bounds of its 
limitation, if limited ; and never to be invaded, if unlimited. All 
accept it on these conditions ; and the questions in dispute are 
considered as forever settled. The disturber of such a Com- 
promise — more especially if he had been a party to it, but in any 
case — might justly be regarded as an enemy of society. It has 
never been supposed that an American citizen had a right to 
move for its repeal, as in a case of ordinary legislation. It would 
be an assault on the foundations of morality — for it is a cov- 
enant. 

Some persons, not content with the Compromise legislation 
of the country, or with a particular part of it, have declared 
against all compromises of the kind. They have even denounced 
it as being itself a compromise of principle. Belter, they say, to 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 193 

adhere to a principle, if it be entertained from conviction, than to 
giv^o it up. But, as Mr. Clay has abundantly shown, in the cita- 
tions we have made from him on this point, in these pages, there 
is no principle concerned in these Compromises but that of a 
mutual concession of material interests for the sake of peace, to 
prevent greater sacrifices, on one side or the other, or on both ; to 
prevent, it may be, th6 shedding of blood by the strife of arms. 
So far from being a sacrifice, or even compromise, of principle, 
it is the highest exemplification of Christian precept to make a 
sacrifice for the sake of peace. In all Mr. Clay's Compromises, 
the concessions claimed have been reciprocal, and therefore prac- 
tical, taking man as he is. No one of them was intended to do 
injustice to either party ; but to make each give up something 
for a higher and greater good to each. All things considered, it 
was a profitable bargain, and a fair one. 

Look at that admirable Missouri Compromise of 1821, brought 
about by Mr. Clay. Missouri appeared, and claimed to be ad- 
mitted as a State of the Union, with an article in her Constitution 
violative of the Federal Constitution. It seemed to be an insup- 
erable obstacle ; and how did Mr. Clay get over it ? Simply by 
prescribing that the Legislature of Missouri should, by a formal 
act, acknowledge the paramount authority of the Constitution of 
the United States, which, on being oflicially communicated to the 
President of the United States, wQuld entitle her to be proclaim- 
ed by the President as a member of the Union. And so it was 
done ; and the obnoxious article of the Missouri State Constitu- 
tion fell to the ground by her own act. Congress did not con- 
tinue to insist that Missouri should expunge that article, as a 
condition of admission into the Union, as it might and would 
have done but for this Compromise ; but Congress left that de- 
mand in abeyance, that is, gave up the point for the time being. 
It was a concession. But Missouri was to make a concession 
also, which, being done, the difficulty vanished. No one could 
find it, and no one could imagine how there should have been 
any difficulty, so peaceful was the result. Here was no sacrifice 
of principle in carrying out the principles of Compromise ; but 
the rule of the Federal Constitution was firmly maintained, and 
triumphed. It was simply adapting the machinery of the Con- 
stitution to the circumstances of the case and to the nature of 
man ; but it required the genius of Mr. Clay to do it. But if 
these uncompromising agitators — these sticklers for princij)le, as 

13 



194 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

they affect to be — had had this business in charge, instead of 
floating smoothly into peaceful waters, under a serene sky, as did 
the ship of state on this occasion, under the guiding hand of Mr. 
Clay, she would have found herself in a stormy sea, threatened 
with wreck, or plunging down a cataract in quest of destruction. 
We have said, elsewhere, that Mr. Clay was a practical man. 
As such, he was forced, when engaged in works of compromise, 
to encounter those who opposed every thing of the kind, and 
who atfected to do it on principle. " Let us have the Constitu- 
tion, let us have right," they would say. " We want no com- 
promise." It was in vain that ]Mi-. Clay replied, " Certainly, 
you shall have both. At least, there shall be no violation of the 
Constitution, and no wrong done." It was in vain he told them 
life itself was a compromise, and all the way through it we are 
forced to compromise. We compromise every day in our neigh- 
borly and social intercourse. Politeness is a system of compro- 
mise ; a man of the best manners is the best compromiser. 
That which makes men most agreeable to each other, and life 
most pleasant, is a rivalship to serve each other at some sacrifice. 
This, indeed, would be a rude world, if it were not a theater of 
compromise, in every act of the great drama. And shall this 
principle of compromise, which operates so well, so beneficently, 
and which is so grateful, in all conventional modes of inter- 
course, be repudiated in tiie machinery of the body politic, 
where, on account of the rigid character of the fabric, it is most 
needed to make it work smoothly ? When angry passions rage 
in private life, where the spirit of compromise is wanting, who 
does not know the unhappy result ? But when conflicting inter- 
ests, in large combination, make the machinery of state " grate 
harsh thunder," is it then only that the principle of compromise 
may never be applied, where it is most needed, on account of tlie 
magnitude of the interests and the amount of human happniess 
which are at stake ? The Constitution of the United States, 
hitherto lauded as an unrivaled document of the kind, is a com- 
promise. It could never have been adopted except on that prin- 
ciple ; and having owed its existence to it, can it be expected to 
work well in similar diificulties, if those intrusted with it shall 
hold in disrespect the vital power that gave it birth and cradled 
its inliiucy ? Surely it never worked better than lu the Mis- 
souri Compromise of 1821, above alluded to. 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Clay's Patriotism. — Conspiracy to break down Mr. Clay. — The Secret of his 
Successes. — Mr. Clay would try the Strength of the Government against Nulli- 
fication. — Federal Authority paramount. — Who Defeated the Bill. — Mr. Clay goes 
to Newport.— Is Benefited. — Returns to Washington. — Mr. Clay Exhausted. — 
His Desire of Home. — Mr. Clay's Predictions in his Raleigh Letter Fullfilled. — 
Why he went to the Senate this last time. 

On the 31st of July, 1850, when the measure reported by Mr. 
Clay from the Committee of Thirteen, then called the "Omni- 
bus bill," was defeated, Mr. Clay had nobly completed the last 
great effort of his public life. It was, indeed, the most pro- 
tracted and the greatest effort he had ever made — one in which 
his heart was more concerned than in any other. There were 
menacing clouds of disunion hanging about our political hor- 
izon, of such serious aspects, as to excite his profoundest con- 
cern. He was now in the last stage of human life, not expect- 
ing long to stay in the country he had served so long — and 
served, as all the world will admit, with great fidelity. Be- 
sides that patriotic affection which is natural to a good man in 
an ordinary position of life, it is reasonable to suppose that Mr. 
Clay's heart toward his country was like that of an anxious 
parent toward a child, the care and culture of whom had been 
the burden of a long life. In the latter case, is not the strength 
of affection always measiu-ed by the solicitude that has been 
felt ? Is it not so with every object of affection that comes 
within the range of man's or of woman's love ? Consider, then, 
the history of Mr. Clay's life — devoted to public affairs from his 
youth till more than three score years and ten had rolled over 
his head. All this while the care of his country, in all that con- 
cerned her interests, had been his vocation. True, he had his 
domestic relations and allections ; but these are but the plantnig- 
ground, the nursery of those feelings which appertain to public 
affairs, when the public interests, and honors, and trusts, make a 
demand upon them. We all know what incessant demand the 



196 THE SUPREMACY OF 

American people made on the use of Mr. Clay's talents, from 
the first buddings of his manhood till the last stage of his life ; 
and how almost incessantly, during this long protracted period, 
he was engaged in the public service, in the highest and most 
responsible trusts, in war and in peace, at home and abroad. 
With tlie feelings of a man and a patriot — the latter of which 
he had in no common degree, and it may be added that he was 
extremely susceptible of the former — it was morally impossible 
he should not have had them all called forth and all exercised, 
in a degree corresponding with the ardor of his natural temjier- 
ament. Always disposed to be frank and fair, he never had any 
motives to be otherwise, inasmuch as this same frankness and 
fairness, in the pecnliar and captivating way in which they were 
manifested, always gained for him private and public esteem. 
His superior personal endowments always opened a way for an 
influence which must gratify, and, generally, satisfy the am- 
bition of any living man. Mr. Clay was always, to the last, ir- 
resistible in his personal sway over the minds of others : and it 
was never more fully demonstrated than in his conduct of the 
Compromise measures of 1850. The opposition was factious 
in some, and determined in all, that went against those measures ; 
some, if not many of his opponents, seemed to be actuated by 
the feeling that, if Mr. Clay was never beaten before, he shall 
be beaten now. " We will break him down in liis old age, in 
his last great effort." They tried hard for it, and for a moment 
they seemed to have succeeded. They were not aware, nobody 
was aware, on the 31st of July, when Mr. Clay's bill was de- 
feated, what an amazing influence he had wielded over the 
Senate, over both Houses of Congress, and over the wide coun- 
try during this long debate; or that that influence must neces- 
sarily react, from that moment, to carry through Congress, in 
great speed, every measure which Mr. Clay had proposed ! 
Such was the result. 

The secret of this influence, no doubt, lay in the recognition 
of Mr. Clay's patriotism in this great efl'ort. In so many forms, 
during this six months' debate, did it flash out from his undying 
ardor, so often did his eloquence, as occasion provoked it, awe 
the Senate into respect, and make even his opponents feel its 
power, that nothing could do away the impression that had been 
made. The storm of conflict was, every now and then, broken 
in upon by the shafts which Mr. Clay wielded, as Jupiter was 



V 



MR. clay's influence. lUT 

fabled to send clown his holts from the heights of Olympus; and 
every one of them told. The d:uk cloud reflected hack the 
light that was cast upon it hy the flashes of an ever-radiant, 
burning genius which presided over the agitated elements in 
the Senate-chamber of the nation. There was no dispute 
as to the supremacy of tiiis influence. Tlie country felt and 
acknowledged that " he was the noblest Roman of them all !" 
At the very moment when his opponents thought to break him 
down and clip his wings, he soared above them, like the eagle 
with his eye on the sun. 

We repeat, that nothing but the amazing power of feeling 
residing in the breast of the true patriot, expressed in those 
eloquent forms which so eminently befitted the occasion that 
challenged its exercise, could have produced an effect like this. 
Nor was it the studied eloquence of Demosthenes, poured forth 
in one day, perhaps in one hour, on an assembled multitude, to 
carry them all before it, in a passion ; but it was the eloquence 
of a patriot, the pulsations of whose heart were seen, as through 
a glass, from day to day, from week to week, and from month 
to month, not in fitful spasms, but calm as reason under the 
guidance of a high tone of moral feeling. Mr. Clay had never 
in his life descended to the trade and tricks of politicians ; and 
he would not do it in this last hour. It was simple honesty, 
truth, on a momentous topic — ^felt to be such — that spoke out ; 
and it was all entertained as that for which it was given. 
Hence its irresistible eflect. 

The manner in which Mr. Clay appeared in the Senate, on 
the first of August, the day after the defeat of his bill, is worthy 
of special note. Having, in those arduous labors, done what he 
could to pacify the country, and, being defeated, he was no 
longer responsible.* Now he looks forward to contingent 
results. If the Senate should yet pass these same measures, 
reported by Mr. Clay from the Committee of Thirteen, ail 
mi"ht be well. Bat if any or all of them should fail in either 
branch of Congress, the consequences threatened were not un- 
likely to be brought on the country — nullification or secession, 
and perhaps civil war. Mr. Clay took this opportunity to say 
that, if nullification should be declared, and carried out by 
one or more States, or by any portion of the people, he, for one, 

* See Appendix, page 389 and onward, for extracts from his speeches on the first 
of August. 



198 NULLIFICATION AND 

should be for trying the strength of the General Government. 
He did not allow that the sovereignty of the States implied the 
right to violate the compact of the Union ; or that it extended 
any further than the use of those powers not ceded to the Fede- 
ral Government by the Constitution of the United States. He 
maintained that the powers thus ceded to the General Govern- 
ment were spread over all the States and TeiTitories of the 
Union, and that they were supreme in their authority over all 
the rights and powers of State sovereignties, whenever the 
latter should Come in conflict with the exercise of the former. 
The Federal authorities, in their appropriate functions, were 
always present in every State, and they could never be sus- 
pended by the action of a State, or of any citizens of a State. 
The rights of the Federal authorities, within the limits pre- 
scribed by the Constitution, arc as good as, and no better than, 
the rights of the States, as determined by the same rule. But 
Federal laws, in their own appropriate domain, are always par- 
amount, and they are backed by all the powers of the Union. 
A State could not secede. Could not nullify, without interfering 
with those la\vs ; and consequently, such an act, sustained, or 
attempted to be sustained, by force, would be insurrection, re- 
bellion, against the common government. It is impossible, 
therefore, that a State should get out of the Union, except by 
fighting against the Union and destroying it. This is Mr. Clay's 
doctrine, that the Union is indissoluble, except by violence, by 
revolution. Consequently, there can never be a dissolution of 
the Union by the rights of a party to it ; nor, in any probability, 
by consent of the parties concerned. It can only be by force, 
against the whole power of the Union ; and Mr. Clay declared 
himself in favor of suppressing any attempt at disunion by all 
the force that may be required. He wished, on such a contin- 
gency, to have the strength of the Government tested ; and he 
had no doubt of the complete triumph of the Union, painful as 
the test would be. The choice forced upon the General Govern- 
ment by silch an insurrection or rebellion, would lie between 
union at such expense, and the disastrous results of disunion ; 
and Mr. Clay believed the former would bo selected. He 
declared, "that both his voice and arm, enfeebled by age as they 
were, should be given to vindicate the rights and claims of the 
Union, and of the entire Union, against any attempts, from 
•whatever qututer, to destroy it. Such a movement," he said, 



SECESSION, 199 

"would be TREASON, and it should be treated as such." Sec the 
extracts from liis speeches on this occasion, in the Ajjpendix 
V, already referred to. 

We find Mr, Clay, therefore, rising in the Senate the very 
next day after the defeat of the bill on which so much depended, 
and with all the solemnity and dignity of his manner under such 
peculiar circumstances, uttering his views of tlie past, present^ 
and future. As to the past, he had done what he could ; as to 
the present, all knew the condition of things as well as he ; and 
as to the future, he himself was relieved of all responsibility. 
The Senate had refused to sustain his measures, and he had no 
others to ofler. But he would warn those who meditated raising 
the standard of disunion, of their perilous undertaking. 

Mr. Clay, at this moment, stood in the presence of many 
senators who, as he knew, sympathized with the doctrine of nul- 
lification, and who, as he feared, were seriously meditating such 
a movement, and only waited for the opportunity — a provocation 
and justification, as they would say — such as the non-adjustment 
of the questions thrown overboard the day before. These very 
men had done all they could to prevent the settlement of those 
qucstions^and apparently had succeeded. It is only in the light 
of these facts that one can appreciate the motives of Mr. Clay in 
denouncing nullification on this occasion, and in warning those 
who were more than half ready to venture upon it — who, in op- 
posing him, and defeating his measures, had done all they could 
to fiu-nish an occasion. 

We do not know what faith Mr, Clay had at this moment, 
that all his measures would be taken up, each by itself, and 
passed separately, as was afterward done ; but we gather from 
the tone of his remarks on the first of August, that he had his 
doubts. In those remarks he once alluded to this contingency; 
but the burden of what he said this day was based on the as- 
sumption, that it would not be done. Amendments most lui- 
graciously thrust in at the moment when it was expected the 
bill would pass, especially those moved by Messrs. Dawson and 
Pearce — the former, as we suppose, making his support of the 
bill contingent on his amendment ; and the latter, one of its 
professed friends from the first — defeated the measure. Mr. 
Clay, doubtless, was chagrined, mortified, discouraged. He 
came down on Blr. Pearce witli dignity, and said, " I make no 
reproaches;" but he would not allow him to escape from the 



200 MR. CLAY AT NEWPORT. 

responsibility, as will be seen in the extracts we have made in 
the Appendix.*- The bill was lost, and all, apparently, was at 
sea again. Mr. Clay could do no more. His health was broken 
down, and he must go to Newport in hope of a resuscitation there. 
He left Washington the next day. But before he went, he laid 
hard on the bosom of the Senate the responsibility they had 
assumed. It was incumbent on them now to do battle with the 
hideous ghost of nullification, which peered over their shoulders, 
and menaced the peace of the country. They had many bad 
spirits to lay, which had passed from the hands of Mr. Clay to 
theirs. But Mr. Clay had shown them how to do it. There 
was no other path of rescue. They never tried to find another, 
but filed into this, as if they had been disciplined to the order ; 
and so they had been. No man dared to strike out a new path, 
or to propose a new measure, or to reject one of these. We 
speak, of course, of the majority of the Senate, who had sustain- 
ed Mr. Clay, and who were still strong enough to caiTy out his 
measures. But Mr. Clay did not leave till he had sounded his 
warning in the ears of the nullifiers, that, so far as he was con- 
cerned, the rights and supremacy of the Federal authorities 
should be maintained, and the country, the world, should know, 
whether twenty-nine States should yield to one, and whether one 
should be permitted to break up the solemn compact of the 
thirty, under which so many blessings had been enjoj'^ed, 
equally participated in by all. If blood was to be shed in de- 
fense of the Union, the responsibility would rest on those who 
should attempt to disturb it. Washington's administration had 
to deal with a civil broil of this kind, and blood was shed ; but 
the insurrection was soon \nit down. So would it be with any 
attempt at nullification. 

On the 2d of August Mr. Clay started for Newport. On the 
6th we find him at Philadelphia enjoying the society of his 
friends.f On the 15th of August he writes to his son, Thomas, 
from Newport : '• They are passing through the Senate all the 
measures of our Compromise, and if they should pass the House 

* It is tUie to Mr. Pearce to say, that no senator was more zealous than he to 
pass all the Compromise measures, as thoy aflerward came up. Mr. Pearce was 
one of tlie most accomplished scholars in the Senate, and a statesman of no 
mean ty|)0, notwithstanding his modest pretensions, as cited in the Appendix. 
But we have not been able to justify the part he took in defeating Mr. Clay's 
bill. 

t See Private Correspondence, page 611. 



HIS RETURN. 201 

also, I hope they will lead to all the good effects which would 
have resulted from the adoptiou of that measure."* He also says : 
"I have been benefited by my visit to this place, and shall remain 
here abcut a week longer." On the 28lh of August we find Mr. 
Clay agnin in the Senate. He was in time to assist in the passage 
of the bill for the supj ression of the slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia, and to fill up the blank for the compensation to Texas 
for the relinquishment of some of her territorial claims, which was 
assigned to him as Chairman of the Committee of Thirteen ; and 
before I'le close of this session, bo had the satisfaction of finding 
all the measures he iiad reported from that committee passed by 
Congress, and approved by the President of the United States, Mr. 
Fillmore. If General Taylor bad lived, there might have been 
difficulty, as we have before seen. In a letter of the 15th of 
July, Mr. Clay says : " I think the event that has happened 
[General Taylor's deatli] will favor tlie passage of the Compro- 
mise Bill."t Providence overrules all things for good. Mr. 
Clay firndy believed that all these measures were necessary for 
the pacification of the country: and tliey were all passed, sub- 
stantially as he conceived and framed them, though, as we have 
seen, the Fugitive Slave Law was not made what he intended 
it should be, as he was absent when it passed, and it failed of 
those amendments with wliich he was charged from the com- 
mittee. That was the only unfortunate law — unfortunate in 
form — of the Compromises of 1850. 

Having been in Washington a little over a week, on his re- 
turn from Newport, Mr. Clay wrote to his son, Thomas : " I am 
again getting very much exhausted. I wish I had remained 
longer at Newport, where I was very much benefited. I shall 
return home as socn as possible, where I desire to be more than 
I ever did in my life. "J 

Is it strange that Mr. Clay should have this feeling of desire 
for liome, and " more than ever in his life," considering his age, 
and the fatigues through which he had passed for the last few 
months ? Is it strange that he should begin to feel exhausted 
again, now that he had very little to do ? He was sustained by 
the long period of exciting anxiety through which he had pass- 
ed, as is natural to all persons in like circumstances ; but the 
care and labor are past — nature sinks. Doubtless, Mr. Clay 
found benefit by his journey to Newport, and by his stay there 

* Private Correspoadence, p. 612. t Ibid, p. Gil. | Ibid, p. 612. 



202 MR, CLAY EXHAUSTED. 

of about three weeks. New faces, exemption from labor, sea 
air, and sea-bathing, at such a place, were a great change from 
that constant stretch of mind and senatorial drudgery from 
which Mr. Clay had escaped ; and more than all, the title which 
he now had to shake oil that weight of responsibility which had 
so long rested on his shoulders. He had done his duty — he had 
done all he could do : he had a right to some repose. But no 
sooner had he returned to Washington, and been there a week, 
than he began to feel exhausted again, though he had little to do. 
Perhaps he did not himself understand the cause ; but we can 
easily see, that the effect of such a long, protracted tension of all 
his powers, intellectual, moral, and physical, as was put in re- 
quisition for that great effort of a leader in the Compromise 
measures of 1850, would not be transient, nor pass off by a little 
vacation at Newport. Had Mr. Clay l:)een a young man, it 
would have been hard enough to bear. But having the weight 
of more than seventy years on his head, the only wonder is that 
he did not sink under it entirely the moment it was over. 

And there is that desire of home, "more than ever in his 
life." How natural ! Mr. Clay had a delectable home, and 
those who loved him there. Ashland is not alone a name for 
poetry, for a whole nation to cherish as the residence of Henry 
Clay; but since Mr. Clay made it what it is, it has been a de- 
licious retreat from the world. 

But there is something more in this desire of liome. ]\Ir. 
Clay was not now a young man, with the tempting field of am- 
bition before him. Ambition was dead in him, except to pre- 
serve untarnished the fame he had acquired for services to his 
countrv and to mankind. When he bade farewell to the Senate, 
in 1842, he never intended to appear there again, and nothing 
would liave induced him to do so, but to serve the country in a 
time of peril. The Mexican war and its conquests had fulfilled 
all Mr. Clay's predictions, uttered in his Raleigh letter. War 
had come, as he foretold, and conquest followed. He warned 
the South, that they would probal)ly be disappointed in their 
plan of slavery extension, and it was this disa])pointment that 
made the trouble which brought Mr. Clay aijain into the Senate 
of the United States. A vast territory had been acquired from 
Mexico witii the design of making it a slave country, and thus 
give a political ascendancy to the slave States in the Congress 
and government of tlie United States. California had lui-ned 



MORE WORK TO DO. 203 

up a free State, and it was discovered that Mexico had abolished 
slavery, and consequently, that the lex loci of all the countries 
ceded by Mexico to the United Stales excluded slavery. In 
addition to this, the Wilmot Proviso was thrown into the House 
of Representatives, and had been carried there. It failed in 
the Senate, and waited only for the admission of California, 
which would give sixteen free States against fifteen slave States. 
This was a totally unexpected result, and precisely what Mr. 
Clay had predicted, in liis Raleigh Letter, as a contingent 
future. 

Of course, the whole South rose in arms against the con- 
sequences of 'this disappointment. They would not admit 
California ; they declared that slavery did exist in the terri- 
tories acquired from Mexico, and that, in any case, the Con- 
stitution of the United States would carry and protect it there ; 
and they would dissolve the Union if the Wilmot Proviso should 
become a law. Nothing could exceed the violence of feeling 
manifested in the South in sight of these facts ; and it was all 
in consequence of the hasty annexation of Texas, and the 
Mexican war — a result directly the reverse of the objects of an- 
nexation and the war. Mr. Clay had foretold it all contingently, 
and the contingencies were afterward developed in history. 

It was in this state of things that Mr. Clay consented to re- 
turn to the Senate, that, if possible, he might be the instrument 
of another great compromise, to compose these disturbed ele- 
^ments, these fearful agitations. Nothing but the incentives of 
such a lofty, patriotic mission could have induced him to turn 
his back again on the shades of Ashland, and mingle in the 
storm of such a debate as awaited his advent in the Senate of 
the United States, at such a time and in such cu'cumstances. 
But it was the call of his country, we might say of God's High 
Providence ; and he obeyed. We have seen what a work he 
had to do there, and what he accomplished. Having done this 
great work, is it a matter of wonder that he should '* desire 
home more than ever in his life ?" 

As soon as this session of Congress adjourned, on the 30th of 
September, Mr. Clay repaired to Ashland. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Continued agitation. — Declaration and Pledge, headed by Mr. Clay, against the 
Agitators. — Efifect thereof — Mr. Clay's Proposal to Amend the Tariff of 1816. — 
Mr. Clay a practical and national man. — " I know no Xorth, no South, no East, 
no AVest."— Mr. Clay's efforts for the Hiver and Harbor bill defeated for want of 
the Previous Question. — His last battle. * 

Mr. Clay, doubtless, enjoyed the repose of Ashland — certainly 
he needed it — during the short recess from the close of the first 
to the beginning of the second session of the thirtv-first Con- 
gress, which was only two months. He, however, extended it 
to the middle, the si.xteenth of December, before he took his 
seat in the Senate. Why did he not resign, as he had done the 
work for which he consented to go to the Senate ? That work 
was not yet complete ; for loud discontents came from various 
quarters in relation to the Compromise — especially from the free 
States, which were greatly dissatisfied with ilie Fugitive Slave 
Law. Neither had the South fully acquiesced in the settlement. 
Much more of influence, in some form, remained to be employed, 
to compose these discontents. Disappointed politicians, Norths 
and South, were still agitating, and trying to agitate the ques- 
tions setded by the Compromise. It was on this account that 
the following paper was drawn up, and signed by Ibrty-four 
members of Congress — from both Houses — Mr. Clay's signature 
being at the head : 

" The undersigned, members of the thirty-first Congress of 
the United States, believing that a renewal of sectional contro- 
versy upon the subject of slavery, would be both dangerous to the 
Union and destructive of its peace, and seeing no mode by which 
such controversies can be avoided, except by a stout adncrence 
to the sctUement thereof effected by the Compromise passed at 
the last session of Congress, do hereby declare their intention to 
maintain the said settlement inviolate, and to resist all attempts 
to repeal or alter the acts aforesaid, unless by the general consent 
of the friends of the measure, and to remedy such evils, if any, 



DECLARATION AND PLEDGE. 205 

as time and experience may develop. And for the purpose of 
making this resohition elfective, they further declare, that they 
will not support, for the office of President or Vice President, or 
of senator or of representative in Congress, or as member of a 
State Legislature, any man, of whatever party, who is not known 
to be opposed to the disturbance aforesaid, and to the renewal, 
in any form, of agitation upon the subject of slavery hereafter. 
Washington, January 22, 1851." 

In this form, and with forty-four names of the leading mem- 
bers of Congress, this Declaration and Pledge went forth to the 
public. What influence it had it is impossible to say, because 
such influence can never be estimated. But it was a rebuke to 
agitators, and it could hardly have failed of its intended eflect. 
Some complained of it, as an abridgment of the freedom of 
speech, and of opinion ; but they might still think and say what 
they should please ; and the only penalty was, that " we, the 
subscribers, and all within the scope of our influence, shaU re- 
gard you as disturbers of the public tranquillity, and we wiU not 
intrust you with the keeping of it." It was, doubtless, a com- 
bination, so far. It has that character on the face of it; it vir- 
tually professed to be such ; and the occasion for it was regarded 
as a befitting one. All who act for the good of society, com- 
bine, in one form or another. They could accomplish little if 
they did not. The form is an accident ; it is the object that makes 
it meritorious or otherwise. And who will say that the object 
of this paper was not worthy of those who signed it — even of 
that great name which stands at the head of the list ? If the 
Compromise, as a whole, was a happy settlement of the diffi- 
cwlties in which the country had been involved, to guard it 
from violation, and to endeavor to check all attempts at its viola- 
tion, was worthy of those who had taken so much pains to 
bring it about. 

Mr. Clay, who had begun life, and passed through it, as the 
consistent and unflinching advocate of American arts, industry, 
and labor, against the rivalship of cheap, foreign labor — so cheap 
that American labor could not compete with it without a sacri- 
fice of its rights, without coming down to the same level of 
pauperism — should not be expected to lose any opportunity that 
presented, of a hopeful character, to renew his efforts in that 
cause. He had observed, with great anxiety, the fearful inroads 



206 TARIFF OF 1846. 

which the TarifT of 18-16 had made on the rights of American 
labor, and what destruction it had wrought in many of the great 
interests of the country. Tn presenting some petitions in behalf 
of our languishing manufactures, on the 22d of December, Mr. 
Clay said: U(?5I 

" Mr. Prcpidcut — I will take occasion to say that I do hope 
that now, when there is an apparent calmness upon the surface 
of public affairs — which I hope is real, and that it will remain 
without disturbiug the deliberations of Congress during the pres- 
ent session — for one, 1 should be extremely delighted if the sub- 
ject of the Tariff of 18 IG could be taken up in a liberal, kind, 
and national spirit ; not with any purpose of reviving those high 
rates of protection which at former periods of our country were 
established for various causes, sometimes from sinister causes, but 
to look deliberately at the operations of the Tariff of 18-16 ; and, 
without disturbing its essential provisions, I should like a con- 
sideration to be given to the question of the prevention of frauds 
and great abuses, of the existence of which there can be no 
earthly doubt. Whether some suitable legislation can not take 
place for that ptu-pose, ought to be deliberately considered. We 
should see whether we can not, without injury, without preju- 
dice to the general interests of the country, give some better 
protection to the manufacturing interests than is now aflorded. 

" The fact is no longer doubtful that the fires are extinguished 
and extinguishing daily in the furnaces of the country. The 
fact is no longer doubtful that the spindles and looms are daily 
stopping in the country. Whether it is possible to arrest this 
downward course, and to throw a little spirit of hope and en- 
couragement into this great industrial interest without agitating 
the country generally, and without any extravagance of legisla- 
tion, are questions, I tliink, very well worthy of serious consider- 
ation ; and I hope, in the calm which we are at present allowed 
to enjoy in relation to other great topics which have so long and 
so disastrously agitated the country, that, at some early period 
during the present session, this subject will be taken up and dealt 
with in a sjnrit of kindness, and harmony, and nationality." 

Who will deny that Mr. Clay was always a practical, a na- 
tional man ? He was practical in this case, because, knowing 
that he could not, in any probability, get all that he wanted, and 
which he might think best for the interests of the country, he 
would take what he could get — even the crumbs that fell from 
the rich manufacturer's table in Europe, who is made rich by 
the wrongs done to American labor. He asked only so to 
amend the Tariff as to prevent the great frauds practiced under 



NO NORTH, NO SOUTH. 207 

its administration, and to give some help to those manufactures, 
which were rapidly going out of existence for want of a moder- 
ate protection, and iu which a vast amount of American capital 
was invested. Knowing well the impossibility of effecting any 
thing by reasoning with such minds as could be satisfied with 
the Tariff of 1846, and that the majority of Congress — certainly 
of the Senate — would refuse to make any essential alterations in 
that law, he prays them to do that which could so easily be 
proved to be wanting, and which must be so obvious to them- 
selves. He condescends to employ even a supplicatory tone — 
"I do hope." He would not do that for himself; but he was 
pleading for the country. 

And Mr. Clay was a national man. In the Senate, February 
14, 1850, Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, had lectured Mr. Clay some- 
what, by implication, on that allegiance which he [Mr. Clay] 
owed to the South, as a senator from a Southern or slave State. 
It was in reply to this that i\lr. Clay uttered the memorable and 
oft-quoted words, " I know no South, no North," etc. 

Mr. Clay said : " It is totally unnecessary for the gentleman 
to remind me of my coming from a slaveholding State. I know 
whence I came, and I know my duty ; and I am ready to sub- 
mit to any responsibility which belongs to me as a senator from 
a slaveholding State. Sir, I have heard something said on this 
and on a former occasion about allegiance to the South. I know 
NO South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any 
allegiance. I owe allegiance to two sovereignties, aud only 
two ; one is to the sovereignty of this Union, and the other is to 
the sovereignty of the State of Kentucky. My allegiance is to 
this American Union and to my own State. But if gentlemen 
suppose that they can exact from me an acknowledgment of 
allegiance to any ideal or future contemplated confederacy of the 
South, I HERE DECLARE that I owe no allegiance to it, nor will I, 
for one, come under any such allegiance, if I can avoid it. I 
know what my duties arc ; and gentlemen may cease to remind 
me of the fact, that I come from a slaveholding State." 

Have we not just emerged from the history of the Compro- 
mise of 1850 ? and was not Mr. Clay a national man in all 
that ? When, on what occasion, as a public man and as a states- 
man, did he ever circumscribe his views to one State, or to one 
section of the country ? and, on all fitting occasions, he carried 
out his views to the wide world ; for, as a nation, we have 



\t^ 



208 RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 

relations to all the world. We see, in the above cited colloquy 
between him and Mr. Foote, how indignantly he scorned the 
imputation of owing allegiance to the South, and yet no man in 
the country ever stood up stronger than he for the just rights of 
the South. He did not measure his duty to the Soiuh by 
Southern views, peculiarly such, but by his loyalty to the whole 
Union. 

The River and Harbor bill of this session, which was of 
very great importance to the country, and which had passed ^n 
the House of Representatives by the decided majority of 103 tc 
87, was reported to the Senate on the 25th of Fehrnaryfand 
was called up the first of March, only three days before the 
close of the session — one of which was Sunday. Mr. Clay 
took a very great interest in this bill, as it is known he always 
did in all measures for internal imju-ovements. If it could 
have been brought to a vote in the Senate it would have 
passed. But it was soon found that the opponents of the bill, 
thongh a minority, were acting in concert to kill it by Par- 
liamentary tactics. It is a pity that the previous question was 
not a rule of the Senate, as it is of the House of Representatives, 
to enable a majority to carry out its own objects in spite of a 
factious minority. We have seen how much Mr. Clay felt the 
importance of that rule during the Compromise debate of the 
previous session. It would have saved months of time, and a 
corresponding expense to the country. W^hen Mr. Clay dis- 
covered this disposition in the minority, he rose and said : " I 
wish to say one or two words only. I hope the friends of the 
bill — its I'eal friends — will insist upon immediate action. It is 
now or never for the bill"' — this day, or never; for there were 
other bills of great importance pending ; the Civil and Diplo- 
matic Appropriation bill, the Navy and Army Bills, which must, 
of necessity, be passed during the remaining three days, and 
they ought not to be acted upon without time for consideration in 
detail. But tb.e preconcerted game of amendments and of 
speeches commenced. After several speeches were made against 
tiie bill, Mr. Clay said : 

'' Tlicrc are three modes of killing a bill. One is by meeting 
it boldly, straightforward, coming up to the mark, and rejecting 
it. Another is by amendments upon amendments, trying to 
make it l)etler tlian it was. Of course I do not speak of the 
motives of senators in ollering the present amendments. I speak 



RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 209 

of the cfTect, which is just as certain, if these amendments are 
adopted, as if the bill were rejected by a vote a2:ainst its pnssn^e. 
A third mode is to speak against time when tliere is very little 
time left. 

" Sir, I have risen to say to the friends of this bill, that if they 
desire it to pass, I trust they Avill vote with me against all 
amendments, and come to as speedy and rapid action as possible. 
Under the idea of an amendment, you will gain nothing:. I 
think it likely there are some items that should not be in the 
bill ; and can you expect in any human work, where there are 
forty or fifty items to be passed upon, to find perfection ? If 
you do, you expect what never was done, and what you^will 
never see. 1 shall vote for the bill for the sake of the good that 
is in it, and not against it on account of the bad it happens to 
contain. I am willing to take it as a man takes his wife, ' for 
better for worse,' believing we shall be much more happy with 
it than without it. 

« 

'' An Iionorable senator has gotten up and told us that hero is 
an appropriation of $2,300,000. Do you not recollect that for 
the last four or five years there have been no appropriations at all 
* upon this subject? Look at the ordinary appropriation, in 1837, 
of $1,307,000; for it is a most remarkable fact that those ad- 
ministrations most hostile to the doctrine of Internal Improve- 
ments have been precisely those in which the most lavish ex- 
penditures have been made. Thus we are told, this morning, 
that there were five, six, or eight hundred thousand dollars 
during General Jackson's administration, and $1,300,000 during 
the first year of Mr. Van Buren's. Now, there has been no ap- 
propriation during the last three or four years, and, in conse- 
quence of this delinquency and neglect on the part of Congress 
heretofore, because some $2,300,000 are to be appropriated by 
this bill, we are to be startled by the financial horrors and diffi- 
culties which have been presented, and driven from the duty 
which we ought to pursue. With regard to the appropriations 
made for that portion of the country from which I come — the 
great Valley of the Mississippi — I will say that we are a reason- 
ing people, a feeling people, and a contrasting people ; and how 
long will it be before the people of this vast valley will rise en 
masse and trample down your little hair-splitting distinctions 
about what is national, and demand what is just and fair, on the 
part of this government, in relation to their great interests? The 
Mississippi, with all its tributaries — the Red, Wabash, Arkansas, 
Tennessee, and Ohio rivers — constitute a part of a great sys- 
tem, and if that system be not national, I should like to know 
one that is national. We are told here that a little work, great 
in its value, one for which I shall vote with great pleasure — the 
breakwater in the little State of Delaware — is a great national 
work, while a work which has for its object the improvement 

14 



210 EIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 

of that vast system of rivers which constitute the Valley of the 
Mississippi, which is to save millions and millions of property 
and many human lives, is not a work to he done, hecanse it is 
not national ! Wliy, look nt the appropriations. Here was oiu" 
young sister, California, admitted hut the other day ; ,$1, 500. 000 
for a hasin there to improve her facilities, and how much more 
for Custom-houses? Four or five hundred thousand dollars 
more in that single State for two ohjects than the totality of the 
sum proposed to be appropriated here. Aroimd the marcrin of 
the coast of the Atlantic, the ^Mexican Gulf, and the Pacific 
coast, everywhere we pour out, in boundless and unmeasured 
streams, the treasures of the United States, but none to the in- 
terior of the West, the Valley of the Mississippi — every cent is 
contested and denied for that object. Will not our people draw 
the contrast ? Talk about commerce ! we have all sorts ot' com- 
merce. I have no hesitation in saying that the domestic com- 
merce of the Lakes and the Valley of the Mississippi — is greatly 
superior in magnitude and importance to all the foreign com- 
merce of the country, for which these vast expenditures are 
made. Sir, 1 call upon the North-western senators, upon Western 
senators, upon Eastern senators, upon senators from all quarters 
of the Union, to recollect that we are parts of one common 
country, and that we can not endure to see, from month to 
month, from day to day, in consequence of the existence of 
snags in the Mississippi, which can be removed at a trifling ex- 
pense, hundreds of lives and millions of property destroyed, in 
consequence of the destruction of the boats navigating those 
rivers, for the want of some little application of the means of 
our common government. 

" I do not say that these people will be driv^en to any great 
and important action, threatening the integrity of the Union. 
No, sir; they will stand by this Union under all circumstances; 
they will support it, they will defend it, they will fly anywhere 
and everywhere to support it; but they will not endure much 
longer this partial, limited, exclusive appropriation of the ])ublic 
revenue of the country to this mere margin of the country, with- 
out doing any thing for that interior which equals nearly, if it does 
not entirely constitute a moiety, of the population of the country. 

*' Mr. President, I have been drawn into these renuuks very 
irregularly, I admit. I am delighted to see some of my Dem- 
ocratic friends breaking the miserable trammels of party. 
Nationality ! Is not that a national improvement which con- 
tributes to the national power, whether tlie improvement be in 
the little State of Delaware, or in the great valley of the Missis- 
sippi river? What makes it harder, especially in regard to the 
Mississippi river, is, that from the vast body o( water, it is im- 
posbilile to make any great national improvement. All that can 
be done is to malce small annual im[)rovoments, by clearnig out 



RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. * 211 

trees from that great national highway — to take up the annual 
snags which form themselves in the river. It requires constant 
and incessant application of means in order to keep the stream 
clear. I have been dra\vn into these observations contrary to 
any purpose I had. Here is the measure before us. If gentle- 
men choose to exhaust the remainder of the session in useless 
amendments, the effect of which is to destroy the bill ; if they 
choose to exhaust the session in speeches made from time to 
time, let them not charge us with defeating the appropriation 
bill. We are ready — for one, I am ready — to pass upon it item 
by item, and then take up the appropriation bill and do the same 
thins: with regard to it." 

The day and evening (Saturday) were consumed, chiefly by 
the opponents of the bill, until 12 o'clock, midnight came, and 
General Cass moved an adjournment, as it was the Sabbath, 
which prevailed. 

On Monday morning, the last day of the session, Mr. Clay said : 

" Mr. President, I rise to make a motion to dispense with the 
morning business, and previous orders, in order to proceed with 
the unfinished business which was left in that state on Saturday 
last ; and, while I am up, I beg leave, not to make a speech — 
for I should consider him worthy of almost any punishment 
who should make a speech on this day — but to say it is mani- 
fest to the Senate, and to the country, that there is a majority 
in this body in favor of the passage of that bill ; and I wish to 
appeal to the justice, to the generosity, to the fairness of the 
minority, to say whether they will, if they have the power — as 
I know they have the power — defeat the bill by measures of 
delay and procrastination ? If they are determined to do it, 
althougli such a determination is incompatible with the genius 
of all "free governments, and I should hope, also, incompatible 
with the sense of propriety which each individual member must 
feel — if there is a determination upon the part of the minority to 
defeat the bill, by measures to which they have the power to re- 
sort, but I am loth to believe they would use them — if there is 
such a determination, and they will avow it, for one, as I think 
it of the utmost importance that great measures connected with 
the operations and continuance of the Government — measures 
of appropriation — should be adopted, notwithstanding the pain 
which I should feel in being obliged to submit to the action of a 
minority, intending to defeat the will of a majority — if such is 
the avowed purpose, I will myself vote for tlie laying this bill 
upon the table. I hope there will be no such purpose. I trust 
that we shall take up the bill and vote upon it ; and I imjilore 
its friends, if they desire to pass it, to say not one word, but 
come to the vote upon it." 



212 RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 

But no one of the minority had the hardihood to confess that 
such was their purpose ; but they recommenced the game. After 
much more precious time had been wasted, Mr. Clay rose and 
said : 

" I at least will not be guilty of losing this or any other 
measure by speaking to-day. I have risen simply to call for the 
Yeas and Nays on the motion, and if there be really a majority 
against the bill in its present shape, I hope they will lay it on 
the table." 

The vote for Mr. Clay's motion to take up the bill, was 30 
Yeas, and 25 Nays, it being probably about a fair showing of 
the majority in favor of the bill. 

Amendments and speeches recommenced, every vote show- 
ing a decided majority for the bill. But the minority continued 
the same tactics till 12 o'clock at night of the 3d of March ! 
During this discussion Mr. Clay made the following remarks : 

" I came to the Senate this morning, and I said that I would 
move to take up the bill now under consideration ; but that if 
the minority who oppose the bill would say that, in the exercise 
of their parliamentary rights, they intended to resist to the 
utmost its passage, I would not insist upon it. I wanted an 
avowal ; no such avowal was made. We have gone on to this 
time, and in what manner, the journal of our proceedings will 
show. The question which this day's proceedings presents is, 
whether the majority or the minority shall govern. No one has 
attempted to deprive the minority of any rights appertaining to 
them. I hope the other portion of this body, the majority, have 
their rights also, and the great question, that question which 
lies at the bottom of all free institutions is, whether the 
majority or the minority shall govern ? Upon the issue of that 
question, I for one, am ready to go before the country and abide 
their decision." 

Then came on a discussion whether the Senate could act con- 
stitutionally and legally after twelve o'clock of the night, when 
the 3d of jNIarch ended and the 4th commenced ; and it was 
finally decided, that they might act, as a legislative branch of the 
Government, till twelve o'clock, m., of the llh, which every one 
knew before. 

Mr. Clay was exhausted, and went to his lodgings for repose. 
The debate, however, went on till four o'clock, when a motion 
to adjourn it to eight in the morning, prevailed, in order to take 
up the appropriation bills. Mr. Clay, having been advised of 



RIVER AND HARBOR BILL. 213 

this adjourned debate, was in his place at eight o'clock ; but the 
Appropriation bills took all the remaining hours till noon, and 
the River and Harbor Bill was lost by the factious and unscru- 
pulous conduct of a minority, in violation of the purpose of a 
free government, in which a majority is expected to rule. 

The Whig party at this time numbered much less than half 
of the Senate. But the country was in favor of this measure, 
and many of the Democrats were afraid to vote, especially the 
^ candidates for the Presidency. But Mr. Clay's personal influence 
was great, and nothing could have defeated the bill but the dis- 
honorable mode adopted — which shows the importance of the 
previous question in the Senate of the United States, since it 
has fallen from that dignified character, when the honor of its 
members — which was appealed to on this occasion by Mr. Clay 
— might be relied upon not to defeat a majority by tricks of a 
minority. 

As this was the last legislative measure in which Mr. Clay 
took a prominent part, it was suitable that he should pass from 
this theater, where he had enacted so brilliant and influential a 
part tor nearly half a century, pleading the cause of internal im- 
provements, which had been one of the great purposes of his 
long public career, and in which he never relaxed his zeal or his 
energy, and he always had the people on his side. True, he did 
not always have a majority in Congress ; for there were many 
otlier issues artfully kept before the people by party tactics, 
which prevented it. But, as we have seen, with a strong party 
majority in the Senate against him, the River and Harbor Bill 
of this session would have passed, but for the unworthy mode 
of opposition adopted. It was on this occasion that Mr. Clay 
fought his last battle of public life. All honor to his splendid 
career ! 



CHAPTER XII. 

Close of Thirty-firat Congress. — Mr. Clay rejects " Constructive Mileage." — His Op- 
position to it. — Mr. Clay's Lungs Injured. — Cough. — Returns to Ashland by way 
of Cuba. — Correspondence with Judge Beatty. — Health poor. — Mr. Clay Appre- 
hends the Secession Question in Congress. — The Gold Medal to Mr. Clay. — ;In- 
creasing Illness. — His Reception of Kossuth. 

We have done with Mr. Clay for the Thirty-first Congress, 
which had finished its term the 4th of March, 185 1. There was 
a called session of the Senate of the Thirty-second Congress for 
Executive business, which convened on the 5th of March. 
Those senators whose terms of service had not expired with the 
Thirty-first Congress, and those who were re-elected, were, of 
course, on the ground. To the consciences and patriotism of all 
these, the old question of '' constructive mileage" applied on this 
occasion — that is, whether they should be paid for a journey 
they had never performed ? The law of mileage for members 
of Congress, was designed to pay their expenses of travel in 
going to Congress and returning. As Congress made the law, it 
is, of course, a liberal provision, the excess of which, above the 
actual cost, is often many times the cost. A senator from Cali- 
fornia is entitled by this law to five thousand dollars for traveling 
expenses to and fro, whereas the actual cost must be consider- 
ably within a thousand dollars ; and a senator from Oregon, 
when it comes to be a Slate, ought to be a rich man, with his 
other pay of sixteen dollars per day for each session. Of course, 
the law was neve# intended to pay this mileage to senators who 
stay over a week or ten days for Executive business at the expir- 
ation of a Congress. Nevertheless, the law has been so con- 
strued ; and mileage has been allowed for this called session of 
the Senate, to those members who were not asiiamed to take it. 
For this called session, beginning the 5th of March, 1851, about 
forty thousand dollars were paid out of the public treasury for 
mileage, not a mile of Miiich was ever traveled. ^Tr. Gwin, of 
California, received over five thousand dollars; and other senat- 



MR. CLAY RETURNS BY CUBA. 215 

ors from remote States received from fifteen hundred to three 
thousand dollars. We are happy to be able to say that Mr. Clay 
was not the only senator that scorned to receive •' constructive 
mileage ;" nor would Mr. Clay make out his own mileage for the 
increased distance of the new methods of public conveyance, as 
the law entitled him to do, inasmuch as these carried him both 
quicker and cheaper than the old methods. Such conscientious- 
ness in public men is worthy of imitation. How can reform in 
public expenditures be expected, when those who alone are in- 
vested with power to carry such reform into effect, will thrust 
their own hands into the public treasury, to take out that which 
they have never earned, for which they render no consideration, 
and which does not belong to them, except by an unwarrantable 
construction of a law made by themselves ? And these men are 
senators of the United States ! 

An attempt was made in the Senate to reject the nomination 
of the Hon. Elisha Whittlesy, as Comptroller of the United States 
Treasury, because he had scruples about allowing this account 
of " Constructive Mileage ;" but Mr. Clay, as might be expected, 
met this attempt with indignant rebuke. Should a man be re- 
jected from office because he is honest — one of the chief and 
prescribed qualifications ? 

The cough which finally carried Mr. Clay out of the world, 
had commenced its havoc on his constitution during the winter 
of 1850 and '51, and he was advised to return to Ashland by 
way of Cuba. He writes Mrs. Clay, under date of 

'•Washington, March 8th, 1851. 
" My De.vr Wife. — I have finally concluded to return by 
Cuba and New Orleans. Tiie greatest difficulty I felt in coming 
to this conclusion, has been my long absence from you, and my 
desire to be with you. But my cough continues. Although I 
do not lay up, my health is bad, and the weather has been the 
worst of March weather. The road, too, by Cumberland, I am 
told, is almost impassable. I hope that I may be benefited by 
the softer climate of Cuba. I expect to go on the 11th, from 
New York, in the steamer Georgia ; and 1 think my absence 
from home will not be prolonged beyond a mouth, that is, the 
middle of April.'"* 

On the 2Sth of April, we find him writing from Ashland to 
Judge Beatty, a long and tried friend. It was in reply to two 
letters transmitted to jNIr. Clay by the judge, on the subject of 

* Private Correspondeuce, page 615. 



216 QUESTION OF SECESSION 

the nomination of 1S48. The following extract may be inter- 
esting : " The nomination made of General Taylor, in Philadel- 
phia, has now no other than an historical interest. It has long 
ceased to affect me. I fear, indeed, that it has had a pernicious 
influence upon the Whig cause ; but of that we shall hereafter 
be able to judge better. I concur entirely in the views pre- 
sented in your reply to . Had I been nominated, I am 

perfectly confident that 1 should have obtained every electoral 
vote which he received, and besides them, the vote of Ohio cer- 
tainly, and that of Indiana probably. My majority in Pennsylva- 
nia would have been greater than that which was given to him. 
But the thing is passed, and no one has more quietly submitted 
to the event than I have."* 

To his son James he writes, May 9, 1851: "My health is 
not good. A troublesome and inconvenient cough has hung by 
me for six months past. It has reduced and enfeebled me very 
much. Dr. Dudley thinks that my lungs are unaflected, and 
that it proceeds from some derangement in the functions of the 
stomach. Be that as it may, I must get rid of the cough, or it 
will dispose of me. My hopes rest upon the etfects of warm 
weather."! 

The following extract from a letter of Mr. Clay, addressed to 
Daniel UUmann Esq., of New York, dated at Ashland, June 14, 
1851, verifies what we have elsewhere recorded in the text, and 
in the Appendix, on that point : " Besides pre-existing questions, 
a new one will probably arise at the next session of Congress, 
involving the right of any one of the States of the Union, upon 
its own separate will and pleasure, to secede from the residue, 
and become a distinct and independent power. The decision 
of that momentous question can not but exert some influence, 
more or less, upon the next Presidential election. For my own 
part, I utterly deny the existence of any such right, and I think 
an attempt to exercise it ought to be resisted to the last extremity. 
For it is, in part, a question of Union or no Union. "J 

We find another notice of this subject, from Mr. Clay's hand, 
in a letter to S. A. AUibone, Esq., of Philadelphia, dated June 
30, 1851, which says: "I have no doubt, with you, that many 
of the quiet and well-disposed citizens of South Carolina are 
opposed to the measures of violence which are threatened by 

* rnvaL<i Correspoudence, page G15. t Ibid., page 61G. 

X Ibid., page 617. 



APPREHENDED BY MR. CLAY. 217 

Others. But the danger is, as history shows too often happens, 
that the bold, the daring, the violent, will get the control, 
and push their measures to a fatal extreme. Should the State 
resolve to secede, it will present a new form of trial to our sys- 
tem. But I entertain undoubting confidence that it will come 
\/ out of it with triumphant success."* 

As Mr. Clay had occasion, during the debate on the Compro- 
mise of 1850, frequently to allude to this subject, and to express 
his sentiments npon it very decidedly, and as it was a subject on 
which he felt the profoundest concern — a concern of precisely 
the same character as that which induced hini to consent to go 
to the Senate again in 1849 — he could not, of course, feel, that the 
time had come for him to resign. We need go no further for a 
reason of his continuing in the Senate. While he had strength 
to go to Washington, and to speak there, he would have been 
unloyal to his country if he had vacated his seat before this 
remaining cloud had j)assed over. 

The following is from the same letter to Mr. Ullmann, above 
referred to : " You inquire if I will visit Newport this summer, 
with a view of ascertaining whether it might not be convenient 
there, or at some other Eastern place, to present me with a 
gold medal which, I understand, my good friends are preparing 
for me. I have been absent from home fifteen out of the last 
nineteen months, and I feel great reluctance to leaving it during 
the present summer. If I were to go to the eastward, I should 
have to return early in the autumn, and soon after to go back to 
Washington, unless I resign my seat in the Senate of the United 
Stales. Under these circumstances my present inclination is to 
remain at home and attend to my private affairs, which need my 
' care. Should my friends persevere in their purpose of present- 
ing me the proposed medal, some suitable time and place can be 
hereafter designated for that purpose. Surely no man was ever 
blessed wiih more ardent and devoted friends than I am, and 
among them, none are more, or, perhaps, so enthusiastic as those 
in the city of New York. God bless them. I wish it were in 
my power to testify my gratitude to them in full accordance 
with the fervent impulses of my heart." 

" God bless them." We need not say that this was a spon- 
taneous gush of affection, and a fervent prayer. It was not in 
Mr. Clay to write so if he did not feel so. He had passed the 
* Private Correspondence, page 620. 



218 THE GOLD MEDAL. 

bounds of all earthly ambition, and his friends never expected 
any thing from his hands as a man in place and power. This 
he knew ; and yet his friends were ambitious to do him honor. 
We have witnessed ]\Ir. Clay's emotions on more than one 
touching occasion, and we know how he felt when he wrote 
these lines. 

Tiie medal above alluded to. was presented to Mr. Clay on 
the 9th of February, 1852, in his own sick chamber, at Wash- 
ington. On one side is presented his head in profile, brought 
out in strong relief; and on the reverse the following in- 
scription appears: "Senate, 1806. Speaker, 1811. War of 
1812 WITH Great Britain. Ghent, 1814. Spanish America, 
1822. Missouri Compromise, 1821. American System, 1824. 
Greece, 1824. Secretary of State, 1825. Pan.vma Instruc- 
tions, 1826. Tariff Compromise, 1833. Public Domain, 
1833 — 1841. Peace with France preserved, 1S35. Com- 
promise, 1850." 

Of course it is unnecessary to say, tliat the events indicated 
in this inscription are those in which Mr. Clay was more es- 
pecially conspicuous, and in some of which he acquired immor- 
tal renown. Any one of them, indeed, lifts him far abov^e the 
head of his cotemporaries, and is a sufficient foundation for his- 
torical fame. It is a small chapter that can go on the face of a 
medal ; but even this is a great chapter. 

A descriptive and more particular account of this medal will 
be found in the volume of Private Correspondence.* Also a 
letter from Mr. Clay, regarding the events indicated on the re- 
verse of the medal. t This letter was from Ashland, dated the 
26th of September, in which he speaks of his " slowly improv- 
ing health," and expresses the hope, that he will be able to at- 
tend the ensuing session of Congress. 

We see, l)y the above notices of his correspondence, that Mr. 
Clay spent his summer at Ashiauil. where, doubtless, he realized 
all the benefits of such repose, which his impaired health would 
permit. It is sufficiently obvious, however, that his vital ener- 
gies had been seriously invaded. Still ho would live and act for 
his country. It was in the autumn of tliis year that he address- 
ed an elaborate letter to certain citizens of New York, on the 
importance of sustaining the Compromise mcasm-es of 1850, 
which will be found in the Appendix.^ 

* Page Q-2-2. t I'age G20. t ^<^S^ *02. 



MR. clay's illness. 219 

Mr. Clay went to Washington at the opening of the Thirty- 
second Congress; hnt the days of his pubUc hfe were numbered. 
He was unable to take his seat in the Senate, except for once, 
when he made a few remarks on an unimportant point, and never 
more lifted up his voice in that chamber, which, for nearly half 
a century, had from time to time resounded with his eloquence. 
But a great light of the American hemisphere still lingered above 
the horizon. As a statesman, he had done with life ; and as a 
Christian, he now prepared to die. 

" That constitution," said one of his physicians, who was called 
from a distance, and most eminent in his jirofession, to consult in 
Mr. Clay's last illness ; " that constitution was made for ninety 
years ; but it has been overtasked. It can never be braced up 
again, but must fall." He alluded more especially to the cares 
and toils of the first session of the Thirty-first Congress, not ignor- 
ing the great and unavoidable anxieties of a statesman in Mr. 
Clay's position — and such a statesman, always conscientious, and 
never able to divest himself of solicitude for his country. And 
so Mr. Clay fell a martyr. Doubtless he did ; and persecution 
itself had to do with it. He fought great battles of life, and was 
never without opponents. He found faithful friends, and uncom- 
promising enemies, throughout his entire career. A magnani- 
mous foe he honored ; because, in such a one, he encountered 
his own image. It was a reflection of himself from a glass ; and 
so far as he was conscious of having that feeling — and he could 
but know he had it — he looked upon it with complacency. But, 
alas! magnanimity and fairness, in the strifes of the political 
arena, are rare endowments of the competitors. " All 's fair in 
politics !" What a maxim ! a maxim that ought ever to scorch 
the lips of him who should dare to utter it ! What a hero must 
he be, who could bear up under such persecutions as Mr. Clay 
had to brave in the former part of his career, and look calmly on 
perfidy directed against himself, without complaint ! But treason, 
and care, and toil broke him down at last. He fell before he 
ought to have fallen. '• He was made for ninety years." 

Mr. Clay's family, having heard of his illness, became anx- 
ious, and his son Thomas, and wife, immediately oflered their 
services. Tiie following are extracts from Mr. Clay's letter in 
reply. The letter was addressed to Mis. Clay, his daughter- 
in-law, and is dated at Washington, December 25th : " I am 
under very great obligations, my dear Mary, to you and to 



220 MR. clay's reception 

Thomas for the kind olTer you have made, to come, either one 
or both of you, to Washington to attend me during my present 
iUness. If there were the least occasion for it, I should Avith 
pleasure accejit the offer. But there is not. Every want, every 
attention which I need, is supplied. * * * if i can get rid 
of this distressing cough, or can materially relieve it, I may yet 
be restored to a comfortable condition. That is the present aim 
of my physicians. But if the cough can not be stopped, or con- 
siderably reduced, * * * I niay linger along for some 
months — long enough, possibly, to reach home once more. 
* * * Under these circumstances, I have no desire to bring 
any member of my family from home, when there is not the 
least necessity for it.''* 

An old acquaintance saw him about this time, or not long 
after, and wrote as follows : " His state was even worse than I 
had feared. He was already emaciated, a prey to a severe and 
distressing cough, and he complained of spells of difficult breath- 
ing. I think no physician would have judged him likely to live 
two months longer. Yet his mind was unclouded and brilliant 
as ever ; his aspirations for his country's welfare as ardent ; and 
though all personal ambition had long been banished, his inter- 
est in the events and impulses of the day was in nowise dimin- 
ished." 

The course of events, in the autumn of 1851, tossed upon our 
shores the great Ilnngariau patriot, Kossuth. He landed at 
New York, and set our world on i\re ])y his eloquent appeals to 
American sentiment and sympathy. Encouraged by his enthu- 
siastic reception, he went a little too far in his interpretations of 
Public Law, of the maxims of Washington, and in his exposi- 
tions of the long-established policy of the American Republic. 
He would not only hav^e us embark in a crusade against all 
the powers of Europe, but he undertook to show tliat our 
principles, as set forth by the founders of the republic, and 
as stamped on the face of our history, required it. American 
sympathy for the unfortnnate Hungarians carried away the 
people at the first onset of this eminent apostle of froodom, 
and they seemed almost e7i masse driving loose from the 
fast-anchored platform laid by the hands of Washington and 
his compatriots. 

Mr. Clay looked out from his sick chamber at Washington on 
* Private Correspondeacc, page G23. 



OF LOUIS KOSSUTH. 221 

this new spectacle and was filled with concern. His battles for 
American freedom, and for the freedom of mankind, had not 
even yet ended ; for he was to meet, face to face, this burning 
zealot, this flashing meteor of European republicanism, sound at 
heart, douhtless, but urged on to desperation by the misfortunes 
of his fatherland. How should he meet him? All his words, on 
such an occasion, would be laid under the eye of the American 
people, as prophetic advice coming back, as it were, from the 
tomb ; certainly uttered by a recognized oracle, standing in the 
door of that great receptacle of humanity, about to enter in ; 
with one hand on its jarring folds, and with the other beckoning 
to his countrymen tarrying behind. He sympathized with 
Hungary profoundly ; he loved the patriot martyr who was 
about to come into his presence, for his sacrifices and devotion 
in the cause of freedom ; but he loved his own country more, 
and had tugged too long in the harness of her service to be will- 
ing that the precious burden borne along should fall down over 
broken wheels, or be wrecked in the mire. He had been too 
long a high officer in the ship of State, to consent that her course 
should be altered by hands unaccustomed to her tackle, or by 
counsels alike unacquainted with her commission, and her chart, 
and her sailing orders. But he wished to receive the self-sacri- 
ficing patriot with hospitality, with sympathy, with kindness. 
He was bound to throw a shield over his country, and not to 
wound the heart of his guest. They met : the exiled chieftain 
of a fallen people, but still cheered on by the sympathy of a 
nation which had fought like battles with success ; and a leader 
of that nation, who had long labored in building up its greatness, 
and who was now sinking under the weight of his years and of 
his toils. A youthful patriot, still meditating battles, stood be- 
fore a patriarch who had gone through all his battles. 

Kossuth visited the city of Washington as the guest of the 
nation. He was received by Mr. Clay in his sick chamber in 
company with a few distinguished individuals. The address 
which Mr. Clay made to him on that occasion, is as follows : 

" I owe you, sir, an apology for not having acceded before to 
the desire you were kind enough to intimate more than once to 
see me ; but really, my health has been so feeble that I did not 
dare to hazard the excitement of so interesting an interview. 
Besides, sir (he added, with some pleasantry), your wonderful 
and fascinating eloquence has mesmerized so large a portion of 



222 MR. clay's address. 

our people wherever yoii have gone, and even some of onr mem- 
bers of Congress (waving his hand toward the two or three 
gentlemen who were present), that I feared to come under its 
influence, lest yon might shake my faith in some principles in 
regard to the foreign policy of this government, which I have 
long and constantly cherished. 

" And in regard to this matter you will allow me, I hope, to 
speak with that sincerity and candor which becomes the interest 
the subject has for you and for myself, and which is due to us 
both, as the votaries of freedom. 

" I trust you will believe me, too, when I tell you that I en- 
tertain the liveliest sympathies in every struggle for liberty in 
Hungary, and in every country, and in this I believe I express 
the universal sentiment of my countrymen. But, sir, for the 
sake of my country, you must allow me to protest against the 
policy you propose to her. Waiving the grave and momentous 
question of the right of one nation" to assume the executive pow- 
er among nations for the enforcement of international law, or of 
the right of the United States to dictate to Russia the character 
of her relations with the nations around her, let us come at once 
to the practical consideration of the matter. 

'' You tell us yourself, with great truth and propriety, that 
mere sympathy, or the expression of sympathy, can not advance 
your purposes. You require ' material aid.' And indeed it is 
manifest that the mere declarations of sympathy of Congress, or 
of the President, or of the public, would be of little avail, unless 
we were prepared to enforce those declarations by a resort to arms, 
and unless other nations could see that preparation and determina- 
tion upon our part. 

" Well, sir, suppose that war should be the issue of the course 
you propose to us. Could we then eff'ect any thing for you, our- 
selves, or the cause of liberty? To transport men and arms 
across the ocean in sufllcicnt numbers and quantities to be ef- 
fective against Russia and Austria would be impossible. It is a 
fact which perhaps may not be generally known, that the most 
imperative reason with Great Britain for the close of her last 
war with us, was tlio immense cost of the transportation and 
maintenance of forces and munitions of war in such a distant 
theater, and yet she had not perhaps more than 30,000 men 
upon this continent at any time. Upon land, Russia is invul- 
nerable to us, as we are to her. Upon the ocean, a war between 
Russia and this country would result in mutual annoyance to 
commerce, but probably in little else. 1 learn recently that her 
war marine is superior to that of any nation in Europe, except 
perhaps Great Britain. Her ports are few, her commerce limited, 
wiiile we, on our part, would oiler as a prey to her cruisers a 
rich and extensive commerce. 

" Thus, sir, after eilecting nothing in such a war, after aban- 



TO LOUIS KOSSUTH. 223 

doniiig our ancient policy of amity and non-intervention in the 
affairs of other nations, and thus justifying them in ahandoning 
the terms of forbearance and non-interference wliich they have 
hitherto preserved toward ns ; after the downfall, perhaps, of 
the friends of liberal institutions in Europe, her despots, imi- 
tating, and provoked by our fatal example, may tm-n upon ns in 
the hour of our weakness and exhaustion, and, with an almost 
equally irresistil)le f<irce of reason and of arms, they may say to 
us, ' You have set ns the example. You have quit your own to 
stand on foreign ground ; you have abandoned the policy you 
professed in the day of your weakness, to interfere in the affairs 
of the people upon this continent, in behalf of those principles, 
the supremacy of which you say is necessary to your prosperity, 
to your existence. We, in our turn, believing that your an- 
archical doctrines are destructive of, and that monarchical prin- 
ciples are essential to the peace, security and happiness of our 
subjects, will obliterate the bed which has nourished such nox- 
ious weeds ; we will crush you as the propagandist of doctrines 
so destructive of the peace and good order of the world.' 

" The indomitable spirit of our people might and would be 
equal to the emergency, and we might remain unsubdued even 
by so tremendous a combination ; but the consequences to us 
would be terrible enough. You must allow me, sir, to speak 
thus freely, as I feel deeply, though my opinion may be of but 
little import, as the expression of a dying man. Sir, the recent 
melancholy subversion of the republican government of France, 
and that enlightened nation voluntarily placing its neck under 
the yoke of despotism, teach us to despair of any present success 
for liberal institutions in Europe. They give us an impressive 
warning not to rely upon others for the vindication of our prin- 
ciples, but to look to ourselves, and to cherish with more care 
than ever the security of our institutions and the preservation of 
our policy and principles. 

" By tire policy to which we have adhered since the days of 
Washington, wo have prospered beyond precedent — we have 
done more for the cause of liberty in the world than arms could 
effect. We have sliowcd to other nations the way to greatness 
and happiness ; and, if we but continue united as one people, and 
persevere in the policy which our experience has so clearly and 
triumphantly vindicated, we may hi another quarter of a century 
furnish an example which the reason of the world can not resist. 
But if we should involve ourselves in the tangled web of Europ- 
ean politics, in a war in which we could effect nothing, and if 
in that struggle Hungary should go down, and we should go 
down with her, where, then, would be the last hope of ihe 
friends of freedom throughout the world ? Far better is it tor 
ourselves, for Hungary, and for the cause of liberty, that, adher- 
ing to our wise, pacilic system, and avoiding the distant wars of 



224 • LAST SPEECH OF MR. CLAY. 

Europe, we should keep our lamp burning brightly on this west- 
ern shore as a light to all nations, than to hazard its utter extinc- 
tion amid the ruins of fallen or falling republics in Europe." 

This was the last public counsel that dropped from Mr. Clay's 
lips. From his pen, about this time, appeared a letter which he 
had addressed to a private individual, expressing his preference 
of Mr. Fillmore as a candidate for the Presidency, though not in 
derogation of the claims and merits of the other Whig candi- 
dates, among whom Mr. Webster and General Scott were most 
conspicuous. Kossuth was undoubtedly disappointed in his re- 
ception by Mr. Clay ; for it was not a very strong pledge of 
" material aid." It was time that some chastening should be 
administered to the rather extravagant pretensions of this ex- 
patriated Hungarian, who had so recently set foot on our shores, 
and who put himself forward as the interpreter of our history, 
against our own understanding of it. There was a true sym- 
pathy, in the hearts of the American people, with his political 
misfortunes, and with those of his country. But he presumed 
too much, and there was of necessity a reaction in the public 
mind. The enthusiasm of his first reception was of an intox- 
icating character, but he left the country without being noticed. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr. Clay's Decline. — Extracts from his own Letters and from those of his Son on the 
subject. — His Death. — Eulogies of Senators. 

A FEW extracts from some of Mr. Clay's last letters are perhaps 
pertinent in this place. 

To his son Thomas he wrote, January 10, 1S52 : " You ob- 
serve how I am obliged to employ the pen of a friend. I am 
very thankful for the kind ofter of yourself and Mary to come 
here and nurse me. I should promptly have accepted if it had 
been necessary, but it was not. Every want and wish that I 
have, are kindly attended to. I am surrounded by good friends 
who are ready and willing to serve me ; and you and Mary your- 
selves could not have been more assiduous in your attentions, 
than are my friends, the Calverts. * * * The solution of 
the problem of my recovery depends upon the distressing cough 
which I have. I think it is a little diminished." 

To Samuel AUibone, Esq., Philadelphia, he writes by an 
amanuensis, January 11th, to thank him for his kind offer to 
come on and assist in nursing him, but he assured Mr. Allibone 
that he had every needed attention. He adds : " Present my 
warm regards to your sister, and tell her that, as the probability 
is, that neither of us is long for this world, I hope that when we 
go hence, we shall meet in one far better."* 

February 12th, Mr. Clay, in a letter to his daughter-in-law, 
Mrs. James B. Clay, says : " As the world recedes from me, I 

* In tlie Private Correspondence of Mr. Clay ■vrill be found a letter from 
Miss Allibone (Susan), page 577, to Mr. Clay, and one from Mr. Clay to her, 
page 569. Mr. Clay very highly appreciated the Christian character of ^liss 
AUibone, who had been for many years a bed-ridden invahd, but whose mind 
was lucid, and her conversation interesting. Her letter to Mr. Clay will indi- 
cate her character. She has since died, and her biography has been pubUshed, 
wliich is full of interest, to tliose who admire eminent piety. Mr. Clay, who 
had listened to her conversation, was accustomed to speak of her with great 
respect, as a remarkable Christian lady. 

15 



226 MR. clay's last illni;ss. 

feel my affections more than ever concentrated on my children 
and theirs. My health has improved a little, but the cough still 
hangs on, and unless I can get rid of it, or greatly diminish it, I 
can not expect a radical cure." 

To his son, James B. Clay, he writes, February 24th : " There 
is notiiing now that interests me so much as to receive full 
accounts from the members of my family frequently. * * * 
My health continues very delicate. My cough hangs on. If I 
can not get rid of it, I think it must prove fatal. I should be 
glad to get home once more." 

March 14th, he writes to his son James again: "Although I 
take an opiate every night, and lie in bed fourteen hours, I can 
get no sound, refreshing sleep. A man whose flesh, strength, 
appetite, and sleep have been greatly reduced, must be in a bad 
way ; and that is my condition. I have taken immense quan- 
tities of drugs, but with little, if any effect on my cough, the 
disease that threatens me. I may linger on some months, but if 
there be no speedy improvement, I must finally sink under it. 
Give my love to dear Susan, and to all your children." 

Again, March 22d, to his son James : " My health continues 
without any material change. I am very weak, write with 
no comfort, sleep badly, and have very little appetite for food." 

To his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Thomas H. Clay, he wrote on 
the 7th of April : " I have but little sleep, appetite, or strength. 
If I am spared, and have strength to make the journey, 1 think 
of going home in May, or early in June, and in that case I wish 
to send for Thomas to accompany me." 

Having heard of the death of Mr. Jacobs, of Louisville, the 
father of his son James's wife, he wrote to James on the 10th 
of April : "I ofler to you and to Susan assurances of my cor- 
dial condolence. Tell her that I hope she will bear the event 
with the fortitude of a Christian. * * * If my health thus 
continues to fail me, I think I can not last a great while. I feel 
perfectly composed and resigned to my fate, whatever it may be." 

The above brief extracts from a correspondence with mem- 
bers of his family, for tiiis period of three months, will be in- 
teresting, as a sketch of his own feelings during this time, and 
of his anticipations of the future. The letters from which they 
are taken will be found in the Private Correspondence, near the 
end. They were, of course, chiclly dictated to an amanuensis, 
as was all his correspondence in iiis gradually declining state of 



EXTRACTS OF CORRESPONDENCE. 227 

health. That correspondence was considerable, as long as he 
was able to dictate a letter, in answer to the many communi- 
cations that poured in upon him, as well from discreet as from 
indiscreet correspondents ; for all can not appreciate the im- 
portance of not invading the privacy of a sick chamber. Mr. 
Clay was one of those persons who would always answer a 
friendly letter if he could ; and he was ill at ease when circum- 
stances .prevented. 

For two weeks from the 10th of April, the date of the last 
extract above given, Mr. Clay continued to sink, and a tele- 
graphic message was dispatched for his son Thomas, on the 
27th, who arrived at his father's bedside on the 5th of May, 
and remained with him till his death. During this period, Mr. 
Thomas H. Clay made daily reports to Ashland of his father's 
health,, of which the following are extracts. 

On the Sth of May, he writes : " For forty-eight hours after 
my arrival my father appeared better than he had been for a 
week previous. He is very feeble, and there is no, longer any 
hope of his reaching Kentucky alive. * * * jje has now 
to be carried from his bed to his couch. He can not talk 
five minutes in the course of the day without great exhaustion. 

* * * fphg Sacrament was administered to him yestetday by 
Mr. Butler, Chaplain of the Senate." 

May 13 : " The only thing the doctors can do is to alleviate, 
as much as they can, the pain arising from his cough and his 
excessive debility." 

May 18 : " My father has passed the last twenty-four hours 
much more comfortably than he had been for a week before. 

* * * It is the cough, and that alone, that has prostrated 
him." 

May 20 : " My father coughed but little last night. Yesterday 
he was a good deal harassed [by friendly calls, as we suppose]. 

* * * He insists on my writing to some of the family every 
day." 

May 20 : " My father passed a tolerable night." 

June 1 : " My father listens attentively to every letter from 
home — ^had some appetite for dinner yesterday." 

June 4 : '•' My father coughed a great deal yesterday, with 
little intermission. * * * He has sud'crcd a good deal since 
this time last night." [This letter was written after midnight.] 

June 7: "My father was yesterday much depressed." [It 
was a moral cause, as the letter shows.] 



228 MR. clay's death. 

June 9 : •• ^Nly father has liecome feeble within a few days, 
and I do not think it possible for him to hold out long." 

June 16 : " My father has been to-day decidedly worse than 
he has been since my arrival. * * * He told me this morn- 
ing that he did not think he should last more than ten days." 
[He lived thirteen.] 

June 20 : " 3Iy father did not pass a good night. * * * He 
was too feeliie this morning to carry a glass of water to his 
lips.'" 

June 25 : "I now look for a termination in my fathers case 
before many hours. Judge Underwood coincides with me in 
opinion." 

June 29 : "I never before imagined that any one could live 
in the extreme state of debility under which my father is now 
suffering." 

This day, the 29th of June, 1852, at seventeen minutes past 
eleven o'clock, a. m., ]Mr. Clay breathed his last. 

The Senate met at twelve o'clock. Before the reading of the 
journal, Mr. Hunter rose, and said : " Mr. President, a rumor 
has been circulated that Henry Clay is dead. His colleague 
[Mr. Underwood] is absent, rendering the last sad offices. I there- 
fore move that the Senate adjourn." 

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 

In the House, after the journal had been read, INIr. Yenable, 
of North Carolina, said : 

" Mr. Speaker — In consequence of the report, which may be 
true, that Henry Clay, the illustrious senator of Kentucky, 
breathed his last at his lodgings a few moments since, I move 
that the House adjourn." 

And the House of Representatives accordingly adjourned. 

It is no ordinary event which we have just recorded. A great 
man has fallen — a man who filled a large space in the history 
of his times, and in the atiections of the American people — of 
mankind; for the world saw and admired him. He came to 
Washington last for what he regarded as the need of his coun- 
try% as the cloud of anxiety was not yet entirely dispersed. He 
wislied to see it vanish forever from the horizon, and he came to 
breathe on it again, if, hapi)ily, he might see it disappear. He 
went ui), FOR ONCE, to that magnificent Capitol, so long the 
theater of his patriotic counsels and peerless elotjuence. He took 



REMARKS OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 229 

his seat there, as if his country, as if God had need of his service. 
His country certainly had ; but God had decreed otherwise — 
we hope not in chnstisement for the sins of the nation. Mr. 
Clay never went up to the Capitol again till the solemn pageant- 
ry of his funeral obsequies carried him there. Death had marked 
him as a victim. It was a rare mark — a proud achievement of 
the Great Destroyer's sway. We have witnessed the sure aim 
— the terrible havoc of the fatal shaft. Professional skill, the 
love of kindred, of friends innumerable, of a country not un- 
grateful, of mankind — for he was the world's benefactor, and 
known as snch — could avail nothing. Death had laid his hand 
upon him. 

The next day after the death of Mr. Clay, a great crowd, sym- 
pathizing in this afflictive bereavement of the American people, 
wended their way to the Senate chamber, in expectation of hear- 
ing what might fall from the lips of the colleagues of the depart- 
ed statesman, in response to this mournful event of Providence. 
The session was opened, as usual, with prayer by the Rev. 
Chaplain, whose touching allusions to the occasion on which 
they were assembled awakened corresponding emotions in the 
hearts of the crowded audience. Foreign embassadors, heads 
of the Executive Departments, Judges of the Supreme Court, 
members of the House of Representatives, and numerous distin- 
guished individuals, strangers and others, were present. After 
the reading of the journal, Mr. Underwood (Joseph R.), the col- 
league of Mr. Clay, rose and said : 

" i\Ir. President, I rise to announce the death of my colleague, 
Mr. Clay. He died at his lodgings, in the National Hotel of 
this city, at seventeen minutes past eleven o'clock yesterday 
morning, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He expired with 
perfect composure, and without a groan or a struggle. 

•' By his death, our country has lost one of its most eminent 
citizens and statesmen ; and, I think, its greatest genius. I shall 
not detain the Senate by narrating the transactions of his long 
and useful life. His distinguished services as a statesman are 
inseparably connected with the history of his country. As 
represeiUative and Speaker in the other House of Congress, as 
senator in this body, as Secretary of State, and as envoy abroad, 
he has, in all these positions, exhibited a wisdom and patriotism 
which hav^e made a deep and lasting impression upon the grate- 
ful hearts of his countrymen. His thoughts and his actions have 
already been published to the world in written biography; in 
Congressional debates and reports j in the journals of the two 



230 REMARKS OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 

Houses; and in the pages of American history. They have 
been commemorated by monuments erected on" the wayside. 
They have been engraven on medals of gold. Their memory 
will survive the monuments of marble and the medals of gold ; 
for these are effaced and decay by the friction of ages. But 
the thoughts and actions of my late colleague have become iden- 
tified with the immortality of the human mind, and will pass 
down from generation to generation as a portion of our national 
inheritance incapable of annihilation, so long as genius has an 
admirer, or liberty a friend. 

" Mr. President, the character of Henry Clay was formed and 
developed by the influence of our free institutions. His phys- 
ical, mental, and moral faculties were the gift of God Tliat 
they v.-ere greatly superior to the faculties allotted to most men, 
can not be questioned. They were not cultivated, improved, and 
directed by a liberal or collegiate education. His respectable 
parents were not wealthy, and had not the means of maintain- 
ing their children at college. Moreover, his father died when he 
was a boy. At an early period Mr. Clay was thrown upon his 
own resources without patrimony. He grew up in a clerk's 
office in Richmond, Virginia. He there studied law. He emi- 
grated from his native State and settled in Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, where he commenced the practice of his profession 
before he was of full age. 

" The road to wealth, to honor, and fame, was open before 
him. Under our constitution and laws lie might freely employ 
his great faculties unobstructed by legal impediments, and un- 
aided by exclusive privileges. Very soon, Mr. Clay made a 
deep and favorable- impression upon the people among whom he 
began his career. The excellence of his natin-al faculties was 
soon displayed. Necessity stimulated him in their cultivation. 
His assiduity, skill, and fidelity, in professional engagements, 
secured public confidence. He was elected member of the 
Legislature of Kentucky, in which body he served several 
sessions prior to ISOG. In that year he was elevated to a seat 
in the Senate of the United States. 

'•At tlie bar, and in the General Assembly of Kentucky, Mr. 
Clay first manifested those high qualities as a iiublic speaker 
which have secured to him so much popular applause and ad- 
miration. His physical and mental organization eminently 
qualified him to become a great and impressive orator. His 
person was tall, slender, and commaniling. His temperament 
ardent^ fearless, and full of hope. His countenance clear, ex- 
pressive, and variable — indicating the emotion whicli predomi- 
nated ai tlie moment with exact similitude. His voice, cul- 
tivated aud modulated in harmony with the seniiment he 
desired to express, fell upon the ear like tlie melody of enrapt- 
uriiig music, llis eye bt-aniiug with inlclligeiice and llashmg 



REMARKS OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 231 

with coruscations of genius. His gestures and attitudes graceful 
and natural. These personal advantages won the prepossessions 
of an audience, even hefore his intellectual powers beiran to 
move his iiearers ; and when his strong connnon sense, Iiis pro- 
found reasoning, his clear conceptions of his subject in all its 
bearings, and his striking and beautiful illustrations, united with 
such personal qualities, were brouglit to the discussion of any 
question, his audience was enraptured, convinced, and led by 
the orator as if enchanted by the lyre of Orpheus. 

'• No man was ever blessed by his Creator with faculties of a 
higher order of excellence than those given to Mr. Clay. In the 
quickness of his perceptions, and the rapidity with which his 
conclusions were formed, he had few equals, and no superior. 
He was eminently endowed with a nice discriminating taste for 
order, symmetry, and beauty. He detected in a moment every 
thing out of place or deficient in his room, upon his farm, in his 
own or the dress of others. He was a skillful judge of the form 
and qualities of his domestic animals, which he delighted to 
raise on his farm. I could give you instances of the quickness 
and minuteness of his keen faculty of observation which never 
overlooked any thing. A want of neatness and order was 
offensive to him. He was particular and neat in his hand- 
writing, and his apparel. A slovenly blot or negligence of any 
sort met his condemnation ; while he was so organized that he 
attended to, and arranged little things to please and gratify his 
natural love for neatness, order, and beauty, his great intellect- 
ual faculties grasped all the subjects of jurisprudence and politics 
with a facility amounting almost to intuition. As a lawyer, he 
stood at the liead of his profession. As a statesman, his stand 
at the head of the Republican Whig party for nearly half a cen- 
tury, establishes his title to pre-eminence among his illustrious 
associates. 

"Mr. Clay was deeply versed in all the springs of human 
action. He had read and studied biography and history. 
Shortly after I left college, I had occasion to call on hini in 
Frankfort, where he was attending court, and I well remember 
to have found him with Plutarch's liives in his hands. No one 
better than he knew how to avail himself of human motives, 
and all the circumstances which surrounded a subject, or could 
present them with more force and skill to accomplish the object 
of an argument. 

"Mr. Clay, throughout his public career, was influenced by 
the loftiest patriotism. Confident in the truth of his convictions 
and the purity of his purposes, he was ardent, sometimes im- 
petuous, in the pursuit of objects which he believed essential to 
the general weUare. Those who stood in his way were thrown 
aside without fear or ceremony. He never allected a courtier's 
deference to men or opinions which he thought hostile to the 



232 REMARKS OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 

best interests of his country' ; and lience he may have wounded 
the vanity of those wlio thought themselves of consequence. 
It is certain, wliatever the cause, that at one period of his life 
Mr. Clay might have been referred to as a proof that there is 
more truth than fiction in those profound lines of the poet : 

" 'He who ascends the mountain-top shall find 

Its loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow ; 
He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 

Must look down on the hate of those below ; 

Though far above the sun of glory glow, 
And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, 

Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 
Contending tempests on his naked head, 
And thus reward the toils which to those summits led.' 

« 

" Calumny and detraction emptied their vials upon him. But 
how glorious the change ! He outlived malice and envy. He 
lived long enough to prove to the world that his ambition was 
no more than a holy aspiration to make his country the greatest, 
most powerful, and best-governed on the earth. If he desired 
its highest office, it was because the greater power and influence 
resulting from such elevation Avould enable him to do more than 
he otherwise could for the progress and advancement — first of 
his own countrymen, then of his whole race. His sympathies 
embraced all. The African slave, the Creole of Spanish Amer- 
ica, the children of renovated, classic Greece — all families of 
men, without respect to color or clime, found in his expanded 
bosom and comprehensive intellect a friend of their elevation 
and amelioration. Such ambition as that is God's implantation 
in the human heart for raising the down-trodden nations of the 
earth, and fitting them for regenerated existence in politics, in 
morals, and religion. 

"Bold and determined as Mr. Clay was in all his actions, he 
was, nevertheless, conciliating. He did not obstinately adhere 
to things impracticable. If he could not accomplish tlie best, 
he contented himself with the nighest approach to it. He has 
been the great compromiser of those political agitations and op- 
posing opinions which have, in the belief of thousands, at dif- 
ferent times, endangered the perpetuity of our Federal Govern- 
ment and Union. 

<• Mr. Clay was no less remarkable for his admirable social 
qualities than for his intellectual abilities. As a companion, he 
was the delight of his friends : and no man ever had better or 
truer. They have loved bini from the beginning, and loved 
him to the last. His hospitable mansion at Ashland was always 
open to their rccei)tion. No guest ever thence dejiartcd without 
feeling liajjpier for his visit. But, alas! that hos|)ilal)le mansion 
has ala-ady been converted into a iiouse of mourning ; already 
has intelligence of his death passed with electric velocity to that 
aged and now widowed lady who, for more than fifty years, bore 



REMARKS OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 233 

to him all the endearing; relations of wife, and whose feeble 
condition prevented her from joinino; liim in this city, and 
soothins^ the angnish of life's Inst scene by those endearing at- 
tentions which no one can give so well as a woman and a 
wife. ^Tay God infnse into her heart and mind the Christian 
spirit of submission niider her bereavment ! ft can not be long 
before she may expect a re-miion in Heavx-n. A nation condoles 
with her and her children on account of their irrepnrn'ile loss. 

" Mr. Clay, from the nature of his disease, declined very 
gradually. He bore his protracted sufferings with great 
equanimity and patience. On one occasion he said to me that 
when death \vas inevitable and must soon come, and when the 
sufferer was ready to die, he did not perceiv^e the wisdom of 
praying to be 'delivered from sudden death.' He thought 
imder such circumstances the sooner suffering was relieved by 
death the better. He desired the, termination of his own suffer- 
ings, while he acknowleda:ed the duty of patiently waiting and 
abiding the pleasure of God. Mr. Clay frequently spoke to me 
of his hope of eternal life, founded upon the merits of Jesus 
Christ as a Saviour; who. as he remarked, came into the world 
to bring ' life and immortality to light.' He was a member of 
the E|)isco}oalian Church. In one of our conversations he told 
me that, as his hour of dissolution approached, he found that 
his affections were concentrating more and more upon his do- 
mestic circle — his wife and children. In my daily visits he 
was in the habit of asking me to detail to him the transactions 
of the Senate. Tliis I did, and he manifested much interest in 
passing occurrences. His inquiries were less frequent as his 
end approached. For the week preceding his death, he seemed 
to be altogether abstracted from the concerns of the world. 
When he became so low that he could not converse without 
being fatigued, he frequently requested those around him to 
converse. He would then quietly listen. He retained his men- 
tal faculties in great perfection. His memory remained perfect. 
' He frequently mentioned events and conversations of recent oc- 
currence, showing that he had a perfect recollection of what 
was said and done. He said to me that he was grateful to God 
for contuming to him the blessing of reason, which enabled 
him to contemplate and reflect on his situation. He manifested, 
during his confinement, the same characteristics which marked 
his conduct through the vigor of his life. He was exceedingly 
averse to giv^e his friends ' trouble^' as he called it. Some time 
before he knew it, we commenced waiting through the night in 
an adjoining room. He said to me after passing a painful day, 
'perhaps some one had better remain all night in the parlor.' 
From this time he knew some friend was constantly at hand 
ready to attend to him. 

" Mr. President, the majestic form of Mr. Clay will no more 



234 REMARKS OF MR. UXDERWOOD, 

grace these Halls. No more shall we hear that voice which has 
so often thrilled and charmed the assemhled representatives of 
the American people. No more shall we see that wavin^r hand 
and eye of light, as when he was engaged in nnfolding his 
policy in regard to the varied interests of our growing and 
mighty republican empire. His voice is silent on earth forever. 
The darkness of death has obscured tlie luster of his eye. But 
the memory of his services — not only to his beloved Kentucky, 
not only to the United States, but to the cause of human freedom 
and progress throughout the world — will live through future 
ages, as a bright example, stimulating and encouraging his own 
countrymen and the people of all nations in their patriotic devo- 
tion to country and humanity. 

" With Christians, there is yet a nobler and a higher thought 
in regard to Mr. Clay. They will think of him in connection 
with eternity. They will contemplate his immortal spirit occu- 
pying its true relative magiiitntle among the moral stars of glory 
in the presence of God. They will think of him as having ful- 
filled the duties allotted to him on earth, having been regenerated 
by Divine grace, and having passed through the valley of the 
shadow of death, and reached an everlasting and happy home in 
that •' house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' 

'* On Sunday morning last, I was watching alone at Mr. 
Clay's bedside. For the last hour he had been luuisually quiet, 
and I thought he was sleeping. In that, however, he told me I 
was mistaken. Opening his eyes and looking at me, he said, 
'IMr. Underwood, there may l)e some question where my remains 
shall be bnried. Some persons may designate Frankfort. I 
wish to repose in the cemetery at Lexington, where many of my 
friends and connections are buried.' My reply was, ' I will en- 
deav^or to have your wish executed.' 

" I now ask the Senate to have his corpse transmitted to Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, for sepulture. Let him sleep with the dead 
of that city, in and near which his home has been for more than 
half a century. For the people of Lexington, the living and the 
dead, he manifested, by the statement made to me, a pure and 
holy sympathy, and a desire to cleave unto them, as strong as 
that wliicli bound Ruth to Naomi. It was his anxious wish to 
return to ihcni before he died, and to realize what the daughter 
of Moab so strongly felt and beautifully expressed : ' Thy people 
shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest 
will I die, and there will I be buried.' 

"It is fit that tiie tomb of Henry Clay should be in the city 
of Lexington. In our Revolution, liberty's first libation of blood 
was pour.Hl out ni a town of tliat name in Massachusetts. On 
hearing u, ilic j)ioneers of Keulneky consecrated the name, and 
ajiplied it to the ])lace where Mr. Clay desired to be biu-ied. 
The associations connected with the name harmonize with his 



REMARKS OF GENERAL CASS. 235 

character ; and the monument erected to his memory at the 
spot selected by him will be visited by the votaries of 
genius and liberty with that reverence which is inspired at 
the tomb of Washington. Upon that monument let his epitaph 
be engraved. • 

" Mr. President, I have availed myself of Doctor Johnson's 
paraphrase of the epitaph on Thomas Hammer, with a few 
alterations and additions, to express in borrowed verse my admi- 
ration for the life and character of Mr. Clay, and with this 
heart-tribute to the memory of my illustrious colleague, I con- 
clude my remarks : 

" ' Bora -when Freodoin her stripes and stars unfurled, 
When Eevolution shook tlie startled world ; 
Heroes and sages taught his brilliant mind 
To know and love tlie rights of all mankind. 
In life's first bloom his public toils began, 
At once commenced the senator and man, 
In business dext'rous, weighty in deliate, 
Near litty years he labored for the State. 
In every speech persuasive wisdom flowed, 
In every act refulgent virtue glowed ; 
Suspended faction ceased from rage and strife, 
To hear his eloquence and praise his life. 
Resistless merits fixed the members' choice. 
Who hailed him Speaker with united voice. 
His talents ripening with advancing years ; 
His wisdom growing with his public cares ; 
A chosf^n envo}', War's dark horrors cease, 
And tides of carnage turn to streams of peace. 
Conflicting principles, internal strife. 
Tariff and slavery, disimion rife, 
All are compromised by his master-hand. 
And beams of joy illuminate the land. 
Patriot, Christian, Husband, Father, Friend, 
Thy work of life achieved a glorious end 1' 

" I offer the following resolutions : 

" Resolved^ That a committee of six be appointed by the President of the 
Senate, to take order for superintending the funeral of Henry Clay, late a mem- 
ber of this body, which will take place to-morrow at 12 o'clock, meridian, and 
that the Senate will attend the same. 

" Resolved, That the members of the Senate, from a sincere desire of showing 
every mark of respect to the inemoiy of the deceased, wdll go into mourning for 
one month by the usual mode of wearing crape on the left arm. 

'■ Resoh-ed, As a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate for the 
memory of Henry Clay, and his long and distinguished services to his country, 
that his remains, in pursuance of the known wishes of his faiuily, be removed to 
the place of sepulture selected by himself at Lexington, in Kentucky, in charge 
of the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, and attended by a commttee of six 
senatoi-s, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, who shall have full 
power to carry this resolution into effect." 

REMARKS OF MR. CASS.* 

" jNIr. President : Again has an impressive warning come to 
teach us that in the midst of life we are in death. The ordi- 
* General Lewis Cass, of Michigan. 



23G REMARKS OF GENERAL CASS. 

nary labors of this Hall are suspended, and its contentions hnshed, 
before the power of Him who says to the storm of human pas- 
sions, as He said of old to the waves of Galilee, 'Pevce, be 
STILL.' The lessons of His Providence, severe as they may be, 
often Iiecome merciful dispensations, like that which is now 
spreading sorrow through the land, and which is reminding us 
that we have higher duties to fulfill, and graver responsibilities 
to encounter, than those that meet us here, when we lay our 
hands upon His holy Word, and invoke His holy name, promis- 
ins to be fiiithful to that Constitution which He save us in His 
mercy, and will withdraw only in the hour of our bhndness and 
disobedience, and of His own wrath. 

" Another great man has fallen in our land, ripe, indeed, in 
years and in honors, but never dearer to the American people 
than when called from the theater of his services and renown, to 
that final liar where the lofty and the lowly must all meet at last. 

'' I do not rise upon this mournful occasion to indulge in the 
language of panegyric. My regard for the memory of the dead, 
and for the obligations of the living, would equally rebuke such 
a course. The severity of truth is at once our proper duty and 
our best consolation. Born during the revolutionary struggle, 
our deceased associate was one of the few remaining public men 
who connect the present generation with the actors in the trying 
scenes of that ev^entful period, and whose deeds and names will 
soon be known only in the history of their country. He was 
another illustration, and a noble one, too, of the glorious equaUty 
of our instituiions, which freely oiler all their rewards to all who 
justly seek them, for he was the architect of his own fortune, 
having made his way in life by self-exertion ;, and he was an 
early adventurer in the great forest of the West, then a world of 
primitive vegetation, but now the abode of intelligence and relig- 
ion, of prosperity and civilization. 

"But he possessed that intellectual superiority which over- 
comes surrounding obstacles, and which local seclusion can not 
long withhold from general knowledge and appreciation. It is 
almost half a century since he passed through Ciiillicothe, then 
the seat of government of Ohio, where I was a memlter of the 
Legislature, on his way to take his place in this very body 
which is now listening to this reminiscence, and to a feeble trib- 
ute of regard from one who then saw him lor the first lime, but 
who can never forget the impression he produced by the charms 
of his conversation, the frankness of his manuer, and the high 
qualities with which he was endowed. Since then he has be- 
longed to his country, and has taken a part, and a prominent 
part, iioth lu [.eace and war, in all the great questions aliecting 
her interests and her honor ; and though it has been my t\)rtune 
often to dulVr from hiin, yet I believe he was as pure a patriot 
as ever participated in the councils of a nation, anxious for the 



REMARKS OF GENERAL CASS. 237 

public good, and seekins; to promote it during all the vicissitudes 
of a long and eventful life. That he exorcised a powerful iuflu- 
ence witliin the sphere of his action, tl)rough the whole couutry, 
indeed we all feel and know ; and we know, too, the eminent 
endowments which gave him this high distinction. Frank and 
fearless in the expression of his opinions, and in the performance 
of his duties — with rare powers of eloquence, which never failed 
to rivet tlie attention of iiis auditory, and which always com- 
manded admiration, even when they did not carry conviction — 
prompt in decision and firm in action, and with a vigorous intel- 
lect, trained in the contests of a stirring life, and strengthened 
by enlarged experience and observation, joined withal to an ar- 
dent love of country, and to great purity of jinrpose ; these were 
the elements of his power and success. And we dwell upon 
them with mournful gratification, now wlien we shrill soon fol- 
low him to the cold and silent tomb, where we shall commit 
earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but with the blessed 
conviction of tlie truth of that Divine revelation, which teaches 
us that there is life and hope beyond the narrow house, where we 
shall leave him alone to the mercy of his God and of ours. 

" He has passed beyond the reach of human praise or censure ; 
but the judgment of his cotemporaries has preceded and pro- 
nounced thejudgment of history, and his name and fame will 
shed luster upon his country, and will be proudly cherished in 
the hearts of his countrymen for long ages to come. Yes, they 
will be cherished and freshly remembered when these marble 
columns that surronnd us^ so often the witnesses of his triumphs, 
but in a few brief hours, when his mortal frame, despoiled of the 
immortal spirit, shall rest under this dome for the last time, to 
become the witnesses of his defeat in that final contest, where 
the mightiest fall before the great destroyer — v/hen these marble 
columns shall themselves have fallen, like all the works of man, 
leaving their broken fragments to tell the story of former magnif- 
icence, amid the very ruins which announce decay and desola- 
tion, 

" I was often with him during his last illness, when the world 
and the things of the world were fast fading away before him. 
He knew that the silver cord was almost loosed, and that tlie 
golden bowl was breaking at the fountain : l)ut he was resigned 
to the will of Providence, feeling that He wiio gave has the right 
to take away in His own good time and manner. Mter his duty 
to his Creator, and his anxiety for his family, his first care was 
for his country, and his first wish for the preservation and perpet- 
uation of the Constitution and the Union, dear to him in the 
hour of death, as they had ever been in the vigor of life. Of 
that Constitution and Union, whose defense, in the last and 
greatest crisis of their peril, had called forth all his energies, and 
had stimulated those memorable and powerful exertions, which 



238 REMARKS OF MR. HUNTER. 

he who witnessed can never forget, and which, no douln. hast- 
tened the final catastrophe, a nation now deplores, with a sincer- 
ity and unanimity not less honorahle to themselves than to the 
memory of the object of their affections. And when we shall 
enter that narrow valley through which he has passed before us, 
and which leads to the judgment-seat of God, may we be 
able to say, through faith in His Son, our Saviour, and in the 
beautiful language of the hymn of the dying Christian — dying, 
but ever living and triumphant : 

" ' Tlie world recedes, it disappears ! 
Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears 
With sounds seraphic rincr : 
Lend, lend your winE^s ! I mount ! I fly ! 
Oh ,<,Tave where is tliy victory ? 
Oh death where is thy sting ?' 

" ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like his.' " 

REMARKS OF MR. HUXTER.* 

" Mr. President, we have heard, with deep sensibility, what 
has just fallen from the senators who have preceded me. We 
have heard, sir, the voice of Kentucky — and, upon this occasion, 
she had a right to speak — in mingled accents of pride and sor- 
row; for it has rarely fallen to the lot of any State to lament the 
loss of such a son. But Virginia, too, is entitled to her place in 
this procession ; for she can not be supposed to be unmindful of 
the tie which bound her to the dead. .When the earth opens to 
receive the mortal part which she gave to man, it is then that af- 
fection is eager to bury in its bosom every recollection but those 
of love and kindness. And, sir, when the last sensible tie is 
about to be severed, it is then that we look with anxious interest 
to the deeds of the life, and to the emanations of the heart and 
the mind, for those more enduring monuments which are the 
creation of an immortal nature. 

" In this instance, we can be at no loss for these. This land, 
sir, is full of the monuments of his genius. His memory is as 
imperishable as American history itself, for he was one of those 
who made it. Sir, he belonged to the marked class who are the 
men of their centiuy ; for it was his rare good fortune not only 
to have been endowed with the capacity to do great things, but 
to have enjoyed the opportunities of achieving tbem. I know, 
sir, it has been said and deplored, that he wanted some of the 
advantages of an early education ; but it, perhai)s, has not l)cen 
remcni])ered that, in many respects, he enjoyed such oppor- 
tunities for mental training as can rarely tall to the lot of man. 
He had not a chance to learn as much from books, but he had 
such opportunities of learning from men as few men have ever en- 

* Robert M. T. liuater, of Virginia. 



REMARKS OF MR. HUNTER. 239 

joyed. Sir, it is to be remembered tbat he was reared at a time 
when there was a state of society in the Commonwealth which 
gave him birth, such as has never been seen there licfore nor 
since. It was his early privilege to see how justice was admin- 
istered by a Pendleton and a Wythe, with the last of whom he 
was in the daily habit of familiar intercourse. He had constant 
opportunities to observe how forensic questions were managed 
by a Marshall and a Wickham. He was old enough, too, to have 
heard and to have appreciated the eloquence of a Patrick Henry, 
and of George Keith Taylor. In short, sir, he lived in a society 
in which the examples of a Jefferson, and a Madison, and a 
Monroe, were living influences, and on which the setting sun of 
a Washington cast the mild elfulgence of its departing rays. 

" He was trained, too, as has been well said by the senator 
from Michigan (Mr. Cass), at a period when the recent revolu- 
tionary struggle had given a more elevated tone to patriotism and 
imparted a higher cast to public feeling and to public character. 
Such lessons were worth, perhaps, more to him than the whole 
encyclopaedia of scholastic learning. Not only were the circum- 
stances of Jiis early training favorable to the development of his 
genius, but the theater upon which he was thrown was emi- 
nently propitious for its exercise. The circumstances of the 
early settlement of Kentucky, the generous, daring, and reckless 
character of the people — all fitted it to be the theater for the dis- 
play of those commanding qualities of heart and mind which he 
so eminently possessed. There can be little doubt but that 
those people and tlieir chosen leader exercised a mu.tual in- 
fluence upon each other ; and no one can be surprised that, with 
his brave spirit, and commanding eloquence, and fascinating ad- 
dress, he should have led not only there but elsewhere. 

"I did not know him, Ish. President, as you did, in the fresh- 
ness of his prime, or in the full maturity of his manhood. I 
did not hear him, sir, as you have heard him, when his voice 
roused the spirit of his countrymen for war — when he cheered 
the drooping, when he rallied the doubting, through all the vi- 
cissitudes of a long and doubtful contest. I have never seen 
him, sir, when, from the height of the chair, he ruled the House 
of Representatives by the energy of his will, or when upon the 
level of the floor he exercised a control almost as absolute, by 
the mastery of his intellect. When I first knew him, his sun 
had a little passed its zenith. The eil'acing hand of time had 
just begun to touch the lineaments of his manhood. But yet, 
sir, I saw enough of him to be able to realize what he might 
have been in the prime of his strength, and in the full vigor of 
his maturity. I saw him, sir, as you did, when he led the ' 0{> 
position' during the administration of ^Nlr. Van Buren. I had 
daily opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of his powers 
during the extra session under Mr. Tyler's administration. And 



240 REMARKS OF MR. HUNTER. 

I saw, as we all saw, in a recent contest, the exhibition of power 
on It is part, whirli was most marvelous in one of his years. 

•• -Mr. President, he may not liave had as much analytical slcill 
as some others, in dissecting a subject. It may be, perhaps, 
that he did not seek to look quite so far ahead as some who 
have been most distinguished for political forecast. But it may 
be truly said of iMr. Clay, that lie was no exaggerator. He 
looked at events through neither end of the telescope, but 
surveyed them with the natural and the naked eye. He had 
the capacity of seeing things as the people saw them, and of 
feeling things as the people felt them. He had, sir, beyond any 
otlier man whom I have ever seen, the true mesmeric touch of 
the orator — tlie rare art of transferring his impulses to others. 
Thoughts, feehngs, emotions, came from the ready mold of his 
genius, radiant and glowing, and communicated their own 
warmth to every heart which received them. His, too, was the 
power of wielding the higher and intenser forms of passion with 
a majesty and an ease which none but the great masters of the 
human heart can ever employ. It was his rare good fortune to 
have been one of those who form, as it were, a sensible link and 
a living tradition which connects one age with another, and 
through which one generation speaks its thoughts and feel- 
ings, and appeals to anotlier. And unfortunate is it for a coun- 
try when it ceases to possess such men, for it is to them that we 
chiefly owe the capacity to maintain the unity of the great 
Epos of human history, and preserve the consistency of political 
action. 

'•' Sir," it may be said that the grave is still new-made which 
covers the mortal remains of one of those great men who have 
been taken from our midst, and the earth is soon to open to receive 
another. I know not, sir, whether it can be said to be a matter 
of lamentation, so far as the dead are concerned, that the thread 
of this life has been clipped when once it has been fully spun. 
They escape the infirmities of age, and they leave an im])erish- 
able name behind them. The loss, sir, is not theirs, but ours ; 
and a loss the more to be lamented that we see none to fill the 
places thus made vacant on the stage of public allairs. But it 
may be well for us, who have much more cause to mourn and 
to lament such deaths, to pause amid the business of life for the 
purpose of contem[)lating the spectacle before us, and of drawing 
the moral from the passing event. It is when death seizes I'or 
its victims those wiio are, by a ' a head and shoulders, taller tluui 
all tlie rest,' that we feel most deeply the uncertainty of human 
allairs, and that ' the glories of our mortal state are siiadows, not 
sul)stantial things.' it is, sir, in such instances as the present 
that we can best study by the light of exani])le the true object 
of life, and the wisest ends of human pursuit."' 



REMARKS OF SIV.. HALE. 241 

REMARKS OF MR. ITALE.* 

" Mr. President : I hope T sliall not he considered ohtrnsive, 
if, on this occasion, for a hrief moment, I mingle my Iiumhle 
voice with those that, with an ahility that I shall neither at- 
tempt nor hope to eqnal, have sought to do justice to the worth 
and memory of the deceased, and, at the same time, appropriate- 
ly to minister to the sympathies and sorrows of a stricken peo- 
ple. Sir, it is the teaching of inspiration that ' no man livetli 
and no man dieth unto himself.' 

" There is a lesson taught no less in the death than in the life 
of every man — eminently so in the case of one who has filled a 
large space and occupied a distinguished position in the thoughts 
and regard of his fellow-men. Particularly instructive at this 
time is the event which we now deplore, although the circum- 
stances attending his decease are such as are calculated to as- 
suage rather than aggravate the grief which it must necessarily 
cause. His time had fully come. The threescore and ten, 
marking the ordinary period of human life, had for some years 
been passed, and, full of years and of honors, he has gone to his 
rest. And now, when the nation is marshaling itself for the 
contest which is to decide ' who shall be greatest,' as if to chas- 
ten our ambition, to restrain and subdue the violence of passion, 
to moderate our desires and elevate our hopes, we have the spec- 
tacle of one who, by the force of his intellect, and the energy of 
his own purpose, had achieved a reputation which the highest 
official honors of the Republic might have illustrated, but could 
not have enhanced, laid low in death — as if, at the very outset 
of this political contest, on which tlic nation is now entering, 
to teach the ambitious and aspiring the end of human pursuits 
and earthly honor. But, sir, I do not intend to dwell on that 
moral which is taught by the silent lips and closed eye of the il- 
lustrious dead, with a force such as no man ever spoke with ; but 
I shall leave the event, with its silent and mute eloquence, to 
impress its own appropriate teachings on the heart. 

" In the long and eventful life of Mr. Clay, in the various po- 
sitions which he occupied, in the many posts of public duty 
which he filled, in the many exhibitions which his history af- 
fords of untiring energy, of unsurpassed eloquence, and of devot- 
ed patriotism, it would be strange, indeed, if ditferent minds, as 
they dwell upon the subject, were all to select the same inci- 
dents of his life as jire-eniinently calculated to challenge admir- 
ation and respect. 

" Sir, my admiration, ay, my affection for Mr. Clay was won 
and secured many years since, even in my school-boy days — 
when his voice of counsel, encouragement, and sympathy, was 
heard ni the other Hall of this Capitol, in behalf of the struggling 

* John P. Hale, of New ilampshire. 
16 



242 REMARKS OF IMR. CLEMENS. 

colonies of the southern portion of this continent, who, in pur- 
suit of their inahenahle rights, in imitation of our own forefath- 
ers, had unfurled the banner of hberty, and, regardless of cf^nse- 
quences, had gallantly rushed into that contest where 'life is 
lost, or freedom won.' And again, sir, when Greece, rich in the 
memories of the past, awoke from the slumber of ages of oppres- 
sion and centuries of shame, and resolved 

" ' To call her viilues back, anil conquer time and fate' — 

there, over the plains of that classic land, above the din of bat- 
tle and the clash of arms, mingling with the shouts of the victors 
and the groans of the vanquished, were heard the thrilling and 
stirring notes of that same eloquence, excited by a sympathy 
which knew no bounds, wide as the world, pleading the cause 
of Grecian liberty before the American Congress, as if to pay 
back to Greece the debt which every patriot and orator felt was 
her due. Sir, in the long and honorable career of the deceased, 
there are many events and circumstances upon which his friends 
and posterity will dwell with satisfaction and pride, but none 
which will preserve his memory with more unfading luster to 
future ages than the course he pursued in the Spanish-American 
and Greek revolutions." 

REMARKS OF MR. CLEMEXS.* 

" Mr. President : I should not have thought it necessary to 
add any thing to what has already been said, but for a request 
preferred by some of the friends of the deceased. I should have 
been content to mourn him in silence, and leave it to other 
tongues to pronounce his eulogy. What I have now to say shall 
be brief — ^very brief. 

" Mr. President, it is now less than three short years ago since 
I first entered this body. At that period it numbered among its 
members many of the most illustrious statesmen this Rei)ublic 
has ever produced, or the world has ever known. Of the living 
it is not my purpose to speak ; but in that brief period death has 
been busy here ; and, as if to mark the feebleness of human 
things, his arrows have been aimed at the highest, the mightiest 
of us all. First died Calhoun. And well, sir, do I remember 
the deep feeling evinced on that occasion by him whose death 
has been announced here to-day, when he said : ' I was his se- 
nior in years — in notliiug else. In the course of nature I ought 
to have preceded him. it has been decreed otherwise : but I 
know that I shall linger here only a short time, and shall soon 
follow him.' It was genius mourning over his younger brother, 
and too surely predicting his own approaching end. 

" He, too, sir, is now gone from among us, and left none like 

* Jon'niiah CK'mens, of Alabama. 



REMARKS OF MR. CLEMENS. 243 

him behind. That voice, whose every tone was music, is hush- 
ed and still. That clear, l)right eye, is dim and histerlcss ; and 
that hreast, where grew and flourished every qnahty which could 
adorn and dignify our nature, is cold as the clod that soon must 
cover it. A few hours have wrought a mighty change — a 
change for which a Hngering iUness had, indeed, in some de- 
gree, prepared us, but which, nevertheless, will still fall upon the 
nation with crushing force. Many a sorrowing heart is now 
asking, as I did yesterday, when I heard the first sound of the 
funeral bell — 

» 

" ' And is he (jone ? — the pure of the purest, 

The hand that upheld our bris^ht banner the surest, 

Is he gone from our struggles away ? 
But yesterday lending a people new life, 
Cold, mute, in the coffin to-day.' 

"Mr. President, this is an occasion when eulogy must fail to 
perform its office. The long life which is now ended is a his- 
tory of glorious deeds too mighty for the tongue of praise. It is 
in the hearts of his countrymen that his best epitaph must be 
written. It is in the admiration of a world that his renown 
must be recorded. In that deep love of country which distin- 
guished every period of his life, he may not have been unrivaled. 
In loftiness of intellect he was not without his peers. The skill 
with which he touched every chord of the human heart may 
have been equaled. The iron will, the unbending firmness, 
the fearless courage, which marked his character, may have been 
shared by others. But where shall we go to find all those qual- 
ities united, concentrated, blended into one brilliant whole, and 
shedding a luster upon one single head, which does not dazzle 
the beholder only because it attracts his love and demands his 
worship ? 

" I scarcely know, sir, how far it may be allowable, upon an 
occasion like this, to refer to party struggles which have left 
wounds not yet entirely healed. I will venture, however, to 
suggest, that it should be a source of consolation to his friends 
that he lived long enough to see the full accomplishment of the 
last great work of his life, and to witness the total disappearance 
of that sectional tempest which threatened to overwhelm the 
Republic in ruins. Both the great parties of the country have 
agreed to stand upon the platform which he erected, and both 
of them have solemnly pledged themselves to maintain unim- 
paired the work of his hands. I doubt not the knowledge of 
this cheered him in his dying moments, and helped to steal 
away the pangs of dissolution. 

" Mr. President, if I knew any thing more that I could say, 1 
would gladly utter it. To me he was something more than 
kind, and I am called upon to mingle a private with a public 
grief. I wish that I could do something to add to his fame. 



244 REMARKS OF MR. COOPER. 

But he hnilt for himself a monument of immortahty, and left 
to his friends no task but that of soothing their own sorrow 
for his loss. We pay to him the tribute of our tears. More 
we have no power to bestow. Patriotism, honor, genius, 
courage, have all come to strew their garlands about his tomb ; 
and well they may, for he was the peer of them all." 

REMARKS OF MR. COOPER.* 

" l\Tr. President, it is hot always by words that the hving pay 
to the dead the sincerest and most eloquent tribute. The tears 
of a nation, flowing spontaneously over the grave of a public 
benefactor, is a more eloquent testimonial of his worth and of 
the aff'ection and veneration of his countrymen, than the most 
highly-wrought eulogium of the most gifted tongue. The heart 
is not necessarily the fountain of words, but it is always the 
source of tears, whether they be of joy, gratitude, or grief. But 
sincere, truthful, and eloquent, as they are, thoy leave no per- 
manent record of the virtues and greatness of him on whose 
tomb they are shed. As the dews of heaven falling at night are 
absorbed by the earth, or dried up by the morning sun. so the 
tears of a people, shed for their benefactor, disappear without 
leaving a trace to tell the future generations of the services, sac- 
rifices, and virtues, of lum to whose memory they were a grate- 
ful tribute. But as homage paid to virtue is an incentive to it, 
it is right that the memory of the good, the great, and the noble 
of the earth should be preserved and honored. 

" The ambition, Mr. President, of the truly great is more the 
hope of living in the memory and estimation of future ages than 
of possessing power in their own. It is this hope that stimulates 
them to perseverance ; that enables them to encounter disa}> 
pointment, ingratitude, and neglect, and to press on through 
toils, luivations, and perils to the end. It was not the hope of 
discoverino; a world, over which he should himself exercise do- 
minion, that sustained Columbus in all his trials. It was not for 
this he braved danger, disappointment, poverty, ^nd reproach. 
It was not for this he subdued his native pride, wandered from 
kingdom to kingdom, kneeling at the feet of princes a suppliant 
for means to prosecute his sublime enterprise. It was not for 
this, after having at last secured the patronage of Isabella, that 
he put olf in his crazy and ill-appointed fleet into unknown seas, 
to struggle with storms and tempests, and the rage of a mutinous 
crew. It was another and a nohler kind of ambition that stim- 
ulated him to contend with terror, superstition, and despair, and 
to press forward on his perilous course, when the needle in his 
comi)ass. losing its polarity seemed to unite with the fury of the 
elements and the insubordination of his crew in turning him 

* James Coopur, of Pouii.-^ylvania. 



REMARKS OF MR. COOPER. 245 

back from his perilous but glorious enterprise. It was the hope 
which was realized at last, when his ungrateful country was 
compelled to inscribe, as an epitaph on his tomb, 

" ' Columbus has given a new ^vo^M (o the kingdoms of Castile and Leon,' 

that enabled him at first to brave so many disappointments, and 
at last to conquer the multitude of perils that beset his pathway 
on the deep. This, sir, is the ambition of the truly great — not 
to achieve present fame, but future immortality. This being 
the case, it is befitting here to-day to add to the life of Henry 
Clay, the record of his death, signalized as it is by a nation's 
gratitude and grief It is right that posterity should learn from 
us, the cotemporaries of the illustrious deceased, that his virtues 
and services were appreciated by his country, and acknowl- 
edged by the tears of his countrymen poured out upon his 
grave. 

" The career of Henry Clay was a wonderful one. And 
what an illustration of the excellence of our institutions would 
a retrospect of his life afford ! Born in an humble station, with- 
out any of the adventitious aids of fortime by which tlie ob- 
stii.ictions on the road to fame are smoothed, he rose not only to 
the most exalted eminence of position, but likewise to the high- 
est place in the allcctions of his coiuitrymen. Takius; into 
view the disadvantages of his early position, disadvantages 
against which he had always to contend, his career is without 
a parallel in the history of great men. To have seen him a 
youth, without friends or fortune, and with but a scanty educa- 
tion, who would have ventured to predict for him a course so 
brilliant and beneficent, and a fame so well deserved and endur- 
ing ? Like a pine, however, which sometimes springs up amid 
the rocks on the mountain side, with scarce a crevice in which 
to fix its roots or soil to nourish them, but which, nevertheless, 
overtops all the trees of the surrounding forest, Hemy Clay, by 
his own inherent, self-sustaining energy and genius, rose to an 
altitude of fame almost unequaled in the age in which he lived. 
As an orator, legislator, and statesman, he had no superior. All 
his faculties were remarkable, and in remarkable combination. 
Possessed of a brilliant genius and fertile imagination, his judg- 
ment was sound, discriminating, and eminently practical. Of 
an ardent and impetuous temperament, he was nevertheless per- 
severing and firm of purpose. Frank, bold, and intrepid, he 
was cautious in providing against the contingencies and ob- 
stacles which might possibly rise up in the road to success. 
Generous, liberal, and entertaining broad and expanded views of 
national policy, in his legislative course he never transcended the 
limits of a wise economy. 

" But, Mr. President, of all his faciUties, that of making friends 
and attaching them to hiin was the most remarkable and extra- 



246 REMARKS OF MR. COOPER. 

ordinary. In this respect, he seemed to possess a sort of fascina- 
tion, by which all who came into his presence were attracted 
toward and bound to him by ties which neither time nor cir- 
cumstances had power to dissolve or weaken. In the admiration 
of his friends was the recognition of the divinity of intellect ; in 
their attachment to him a confession of his generous personal 
qualities and social virtues. 

'• Of the public services of Mr. Clay, the present occasion af- 
fords no room for a sketch more extended than that which his 
respected colleague [Mr. Underwood] has presented. It is, 
however, sulRcient to say, that for more than forty years he has 
been a prominent actor in the drama of American alfairs. Dur- 
ing the late war with England his voice was more potent than 
any other in awakening the spirit of the country, infusing confi- 
dence into the people, and rendering available their resources for 
carrying on the contest. In our domestic controversies, threaten- 
ing the peace of the country and the integrity of the Union, he 
has always been first to note danger as well as to suggest the 
means of averting it. AVIieii the waters of the great political 
deep were upheaved by the tempest of discord, and the ark 
of the Union, freighted with the hopes and destinies of ime- 
dom, tossing about on the raging billows, and drifting every 
moment nearer to the vortex which threatened to swallow 
it up, it was his clarion voice, rising above the storm, that 
admonished the crew of impending peril, and counseled tlie way 
to safety. 

" But, Mr. President, devotedly as he loved his country, his 
aspirations were not limited to its welfare alone. Wherever 
freedom had a votary, that votary had a friend hi Henry Clay ; 
and in the struggle of the Spanish colonies for independence, he 
uttered words of encouragement which have become tlie mot- 
toes on tlie banners of freedom in every land. But neitlier the 
services which he has rendered his own country, nor his wishes 
for the welfare of others, nor his genius, nor tlie allcciiun of 
friends, could turn aside the destroyer. >>o price could purchase 
exemption from the common lot of humanity. Henry CLiy, the 
wise, the great, the gifted, had to die ; and liis lustory is sum- 
med up in the biography which the Uussuin poet has prepared 
for all, kings and serfs, viz. : 

" ' Bora, living, tlyiiig, 
Quitting tlie still shore lor tlic troubled wave, 

Struggling witli storm-clouds, over shipwrecks flying, 
And casling anchor in the silent grave.' 

" But though time would not spare him. there is still this con- 
solation: lie died peacefully and hapj)y, .ij)e in renown, full of 
years and ol honors, and rich in the alfeciions of his country. 
He enjoyed, loo, the unspeakable salisfaciiou of closing his eyes 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 247 

while the country he had loved so much and served so well was 
still in the enjoyment of peace, happiness, union, and prosperity 
— still advancing in all the elements of wealth, greatness, and 

power. 

" I know, Mr. President, how unequal I have been to the ap- 
parently self-imposed task of presenting, in an appropriate man- 
ner, fhe merits of the illustrious deceased. But if I had re- 
mained silent on an occasion like this, when the hearts of my 
constituents are swelling with grief, I would have been disowned 
by them. It is for this reascyi — that of giving utterance to their 
feelings ss well as my own — that 1 have trespassed on the time 
of the Senate. I would that I could have spoken fitter words ; 
but, such as they are, they have been uttered by the tongue in 
response to the promptings of the heart." 

KEMARKS OF MR. SEWARD* 

" Mr. President : Fifty years ago, Henry Clay, of Virginia, 
already adopted by Kentucky, then as youthful as himself, 
entered the service of his country, a representative in the un- 
pretending Legislature of that rising State ; and having thence- 
forward pursued, with ardor and constancy, the gradual paths of 
an aspiring change through Halls of Congress, foreign courts, and 
Executive councils, he has now, with the cheerfulness of a pat- 
riot, and the serenity of a Christian, fitly closed his long and 
arduous career, here in the Senate, in the full presence of the 
Republic, looking down upon the scene with anxiety and alarm 
— not merely a senator like one of us who yet remain in the 
Senate-house, but filling that character which, though it had no 
authority of law, and was assigned without suffrage, Augustus 
Caesar nevertheless declared was above the title of Emperor, 
Primus inter Illiistres — the Prince of the Senate. 

" Generals are tried, Mr. President, by examining the cam- 
paigns they iiave Lost or won, and statesmen by reviewing the 
transactions in which they have been engaged. Hamilton 
would have been unknown to us had there been no Constitution 
to be created, as Brutus would have died in obscurity, had there 
been no Cocsar to be slain. 

" Colonization, Revolution, and Organization — three great acts 
in the drama of our national progress — had already passed when 
the Western patriot appeared on the public stage. He entered 
in that next division of the majestic scenes which was marked 
by an inevitable re-action of political forces, a wild strife of 
factions, and ruinous embarrassments in our foreign relations. 
This transition-stage is always more perilous than any otlier in 
the career of nations, and especially m the career of Republics. 
It proved fatal to the Commonwealtli of England. Scarcely any 

* William H. Seward, of New YorL 



248 REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 

of the Spanish-American States have yet emerged from it : and 
it has more than once been sadly signalized by the ruin of the 
Republican cansc in France. 

" The continnons administration of Washington and John 
Adams, had closed nndcr a clond whicli had thrown a broad, 
dark shadow over the futnre ; the nation was deeply indebted 
at home and abroad, and its credit was prostrate. The revolu- 
tionary factions had given place to two inveterate parties, 
divided by a gulf which had been worn by the conflict in which 
the Constitution was adopted, audi made broader and deeper by 
a war of prejudices concerning the merits of the belligerents in 
the great European struggle that then convulsed the civilized 
world. Our extraordinary political system was little more than 
an ingenious theory, not yet practically established. The Union 
of the States was as yet only one of compact ; for the political, 
social, and commercial necessities to which it was so marvelously 
adapted, and which, clustering thickly upon it, now render it 
indissoluble, had not tlien been broadly disclosed, nor had the 
habits of acquiescence, and the sentiments of loyalty, always of 
slow growth, fully ripened. The bark that had gone to sea, 
thus unfurnished and untried, seemed quite certain to founder 
by reason of its own inherent frailty, even if it should escape 
unharmed in the great conflict of nations, which acknowledged 
no claims of justice, and tolerated no pretensions to neutrality. 
Moreover, the territory possessed by the nation was inadequate 
to commercial exigences, and indispensable social expansion ; 
and yet no provision had been made for enlargement, nor for ex- 
tending the political system over distant regions, inhabited or 
otherwise, which must inevitably be acquired. Nor could any 
such acquisition be made without disturbing the carefully ad- 
justed balance of powers among the members of the Confede- 
racy. 

'• These difficulties, Mr. President, although they grew less 
with time and by slow degrees, continued throughout the whole 
life of the statesman whose obsequies we are celebrating. Be 
it known, then — and I am sure that history will confirm the in- 
struction — that conservatism was the interest of the nation, and 
the responsibility of its rulers, during the period in \v\\\ch he 
flourished. He was ardent, hold, generous, and even ambitious; 
and yet, with a profound conviction of the true exigences of 
the country, like Alexander Hamilton, he disciplined himself, 
and trained a restless nation, that knew only self-control, to the 
rigorous practice of that often humiliating conservatism which 
its welfare and security in that particular crisis so imperiously 
demanded. 

'• it could not have happened, sir, lo any citizen to have acted 
alone, nor even to have acted always the most conspicuous part, 
in a trying period so long protracted. Henry Clay, therefore, 



REMARKS OF MR. SP^WARD. 249 

shared the responsibilities of Government with not only his 
proper c'otoniporaries, bnt also survivors of the Revolution, as 
well as also many who will now succeed himself. Delicacy for- 
bids my naming those who retain their places here ; but v/e may, 
without impropriety, recall among his compeers a senator of vast 
resources and inflexiljle resolve, who has recently withdrawn 
from this Chamber, but 1 trust not altogether from pnlilic life, 
(Mr. Benton) ; and another, who, surpassing all his cotemporaries 
within his country, and even throughout the world, in the 
proper eloquence of the forum, now, in autumnal years, for a 
second time, dignifies and adorns tlio highest seat in the Ex- 
ecutive Council, (Mr. Wcljster). Passing by those eminent and 
noble men, the shades of Calhoun, John Q,uincy Adams, Jack- 
son, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson, rise up before us — states- 
men whose living and local fame has ripened already into his- 
torical and world-wide renown. 

"Among geniuses so lofty as these, Henry Clay bore a part in 
regulating the constitutional freedom of political debate ; estab- 
lishing that long-contested and most important line which 
divides the sovereignty of the several States from that of the 
States confederated ; asserting the right of neutrality, and vindi- 
cating it by a war against Great Britain, when that just, but ex- 
treme measure became necessary ; adjusting the terms on which 
that perilous, yet honorable contest, was brought to a peaceful 
close ; perfecting the army, and the navy, and national fortifica- 
tions ; settling the fiscal and financial policy of the Govermnent 
in more than one crisis of apparently-threatened revolution ; 
asserting and calling into exercise the powers of the Govern- 
ment for making and improving internal communications be- 
tween the States ; arousing and encouraging the Spanish-Ameri- 
can colonies on this continent to throw oil tlie foreign yoke, and 
to organize governments on principles congenial to our own, and 
thus creating external bulwarks for our own national defense ; 
establishing equal and impartial peace and amity with all exist- 
ing maritime powers ; and extending the constitutional organ- 
ization of Government over vast regions, all secured in his life- 
time by purchase or by conquest, whereby the pillars of the Re- 
public have been removed from the banks of the St. Mary's to 
the borders of the Rio Grande, and from the margin of the Mis- 
sissippi to the Pacific coast. We may not yet discuss the wis- 
dom of the several measures which have thus passed in review 
before us, nor of the positions which the deceased statesman as- 
sumed in regard to them, but we may, without olfense, dwell 
upon the comprehensive results of them all. 

" Tiie Umon exists in absolute integrity, and the Republic in 
complete and truunphant development. Without having relin- 
quished any part of their individuality, the States have more 
than doubled already, and are increasing in numbers and grow- 



250 . REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 

mq: in political strength and expansion more rapidly than ever 
before. Witliont havins: absorbed any State, or having even 
encroached on any State, the Confederation has opened itself so 
as to embrace all the new members who have come ; and now, 
with capacity for further and indefinite enlargement, has become 
fixed, enduring, and perpetual. Althounh it was doubted, only 
half a century aso, whether our political system could be main- 
tained at all, and whether, if maintained, it could guaranty 
the peace and happiness of society, it stands now confessed 
by the world the form of government not only most adapted to 
empire, but also most congenial with the constitution of Inmian 
nature. 

" When we consider that the nation has been conducted to 
this haven, not only through stormy seas, but altogether also 
without a course and without a star ; and when we consider, 
moreover, the sum of happiness that has already been enjoyed 
by the American people, and still more the influence which the 
great achievement is exerting on the advancement and meliora- 
tion of the condition of mankind, we see at once that it might 
have satisfied the highest amliition to have been, no matter how 
hnmlily, concerned in so great a transaction. 

'■' Certainly, sir, no one will assert that Henry Clay in that 
transaction perfonncd an obscure, or even a common part. On 
the contrary, from the day in which he entered the public serv- 
ice, until that on which he passed the gates of death, he was 
never a follower, but always a leader : and he marshaled either 
the party which sustained, or that whicli resisted, every great 
measure, equally in the Senate and in tiie popular canvass. And 
he led where duty seemed to him to indicate, reckless whether 
he encountered one President or twenty Presidents, whether he 
was opposed by faction or even by the whole people. Hence it 
has happened that, although that people are not yet agreed 
among themselves on the wisdom of all or perhaps of even any 
of his great measures, yet they are nevertheless unanimous in ac- 
knowleilging that he was at once the greatest, the most faithful, 
and the most reliable of tlicir statesmen. Here the etlbrt at dis- 
criminating praise of Henry Clay in regard to his public policy 
must stop, even on this sad occasion, which awakens the ai-dent 
liberality of his generous surviv^ors. 

" But his personal qualities may be discussed without appre- 
hension. What were tlie elements of tiie success of tliat extra- 
ordinary man? You, sir, knew liim longer and better than I, 
and I would preter to hear you sjieak of them. He was indeed 
eloquent — all the world knows that. He held the keys to the 
hearts of his countrymen, and he turned the wards within them 
with a skill attained by no other master. 

'• liut eloquence was neveitheless only an instrument, and one 
of many that he used. His conversation, his gestures, his very 



REMARKS OF MR. SEWARD. 2.51 

look, was magisterial, persuasive, seductive, irresistible. And 
his appliance of all these was courteous, patient, and indefat- 
igahlo. Defeat only inspired him with new resolution. He 
divided opposition by his assiduity of address, while he rallied 
and strengthened his own bands of supporters by the confidence 
of success which, feeling himself, he easily inspired among his 
followers. His affections were high, and pure, and generous, 
and ti>e chiefest among them was that one which the great 
Italian poet designated as the charity of native land. In him 
that charity was an enduring and overpowering enthusiasm, and 
it influenced all his sentiments and conduct, rendering him more 
impartial between conllicting interests and sections, than any 
other statesman who has lived since the Revolution. Thus, 
with great versatility of talent, and the most catholic equality of 
favor, he identified every question, whether of domestic admin- 
istration or foreign policy, with his own great name, and so 
became a perpetual tribune of the people. He needed only 
to pronounce in favor of a measure -or against it, here, and 
immediately popular enthusiasm, excited as by a magic wand, 
was felt, overcoming and dissolving all opposition in the Senate- 
Chamber. 

" In this way he wrought a change in our political system, 
that I think was not foreseen by its foundei-s. He converted 
this branch of the Legislature from a negative position, or one 
of equilibrium between the Executive and the House of Repre- 
sentatives, into the active ruling power of the Republic. Only 
time can disclose whether this great innovation shall be benefi- 
cent, or even permanent. 

" Certainly, sir, the great lights of the Senate have set. The 
obscurity is not less palpable to the country than to us, who 
are left to grope our uncertain way here, as in a labyrinth, op- 
pressed with self-distrust. The time, too, presents new embar- 
rassments. We are rising to another and more sublime stage of 
national progress — that of expanding wealth and rapid territorial 
aggrandizement. 

" Oar institutions throw a broad shadow across the St. Law- 
rence, and, stretching beyond the valley of Mexico, reach even 
to the plains of Central America, while the Sandwich Islands 
and the shores of China recognize their renovating influence. 
Wherever that influence is felt, a desire for protection under 
those institutions is awakened. Expansion seems to be regu- 
lated not hy any difficulties of resistance, but by the moderation 
which results from our own internal constitution. No one 
knows how rapidly that restraint may giv'e way. Who can tell 
how far or how last it ought to yield ? Commerce has brought 
the ancient continents near to us, and created necessities for new 
positions — perhaps connections or colonies there — and with the 
trade and friendship of the elder nations, their conflicts and col- 



252 REMARKS OF MR. JONES. 

lisions are brought to our doors and to our hearts. Our sympathy 
kindles, or indifference extinguishes, the fires of freedom in 
foreign lands. Before we shall he fully conscious that a change, 
is going on in Europe, we may find ourselves once more divided 
by that eternal line of separation that leaves on the one side 
those of our citizens who obey the impulses of sympathy, while 
on the other are found those who submit only to the counsels of 
prudence. Even prudence will soon be required to decide 
whetlier distant regions, East and West, shall come under our 
own protection, or be left to aggrandize a rapidly-spreading 
domain of hostile despotism. 

" Sir. who among us is equal to these mighty questions ? I 
fear there is no one. Nevertheless, the example of Henry Clay 
remains for our instruction. His genius has passed to the realms 
of light, but his virtues still live here for our emulation. 
With them there will remain also the protection and favor of 
the Most High, if by the practice of justice and the maintenance 
of freedom we shall deserve them. Let, then, the bier pass on. 
We will follow with sorrow, but not without hope, the reverend 
form that it bears to its final restmg-place ; and then, when that 
grave opens at our feet to receive so estimable a treasure, we will 
invoke the God of our fathers to send us new guides, like him 
that is now withdrawn, and give us wisdom to obey their in- 
structions." 

REMARKS OF MR. G. W. JONES.* 

"Mr. President: Of the vast number who mourn the depart- 
ure of the great man whose voice has so often been heard ni this 
Hall, I have peculiar cause to regret that dispensation which has 
removed him from among us. He was the guardian and direct- 
or of my collegiate days ; four of his sons were my college-mates 
and warm friends. My intercourse with the father was that of a 
youth and a friendly adviser. I shall never cease to feel grateful 
to him — to his now heart-stricken and bereaved widow and 
children, for their many kindnesses to me during four or five 
years of my life. I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaint- 
ance with him, first, as a delegate in Congress, while he was a 
member of this body. from 1835 to 1S39, and again in 18 19, as 
a member of this branch of Congress ; and during the whole of 
which period, some eight years, none but the most kindly feeling 
existed between us. 

^As an liumble and unimportant senator, it was my lortune to 
co-operate with him throughout tiie whole ol' the exciting session 
of 1849-50 — ihi' labor and excitement ot' which is said to have 
preci])itated his decease. That co-operation did iiot end with the 
accordant vote ou this lloor, but, in consequence of the unyield- 
ing opposition to the scries of measiu'es known as the ' Cora- 

* George W. Jones, of Iowa. 



REMARKS OF MR. BROOKE, 253 

promise,' extended to many private meetings held by its friends, 
at all of which Mr. Clay was present. And whether in pnhlic 
or private life, he everywhere continned to inspire me with the 
most exalted estimate of his patriotism and statesmanship. 
Never shall I forget the many ardent appeals he made to senat- 
ors, in and out of the Senate, in favor of the settlement of our 
then unhappy sectional dificrences. 

'• Immediately after the close of that memorable session of 
Congress, durins: which the nation beheld his great and almost 
superhuman elforts upon this floor to sustain the wise counsels 
of the ' Father of his Country,' I accompanied him home to Ash- 
land, at his invitation, to revisit the ])lace where my happiest 
days had been spent, with the friends who there continued to re- 
side. During that, to me, most agreeable and instructive jour- 
ney, in many conversations, he evinced the utmost solicitude for 
the welfare and honor of the Republic, all tending to show that 
he believed the happiness of the people and the cause of liberty 
throughout the world depended upon the continuance of our 
glorious Union, and the avoidance of those sectional dissensions 
which could but alienate the affections of one portion of the 
people from another. With the sincerity and fervor of a true 
patriot, he warned his companions in that journey to withhold all 
aid from men who labored, and from every cause which tended, 
to sow the seeds of disunion in the land ; and to oppose such, he 
declared himself willing to forego all the ties and associations of 
mere party. 

"At a subsequent period, sir, this friend of my youth, at my 
earnest and repeated entreaties, consented to take a sea-voyage 
from New York to Havana. He remained at the latter place a 
fortnight, and then returned by New Orleans to Ashland. That 
excursion by sea, he assured me, contributed much to relieve him 
from the sufferings occasioned by the disease which has just 
terminated his eventful and glorious life. Would to Heaven that 
he could have been persuaded to abandon his duties as a senator, 
and to have remained during the past winter and spring upon 
that Island of Cuba ! The country would not now, perhaps, 
have been called to mourn his loss. 

" In some matters of policy connected with the administration 
of our General Government, I have disagreed with him, yet the 
pm-ity and sincerity of his motives I have never doubted ; and 
as a true lover of his country, as an honorable and honest man, I 
trust his example will be reverenced and followed by the men 
of this and of succeeding generations." 

REMARKS OF MR. BROOKE* 

" Mr. President : As an ardent personal admirer and political 
friend of the distinguished dead, 1 claim the privilege of adding 

* Walter Brooke, of Mississippi 



254 REMARKS OF MR. BROOKE. 

my humble tribute of respect to his memory, and of joinins in 
the general expression of sorrow that has gone forth from this 
Chamber. Death, at all times, is an instructive monitor as well 
as a mournful messenger ; but when his fatal shaft hath stricken 
down the great in intellect and renown, how doubly impressive 
the lesson that it brings home to the heart that the grave is the 
common lot of all — the great leveler of all earthly distinctions ! 
But at the same time we are taught that in one sense the good 
and great can never die ; for the memory of their virtues and 
their bright example will live through all coming time in an im- 
mortality that blooms beyond the grave. The consolation of 
this thought may calm our sorrow ; and, in the language of one 
of our own poets, it may be asked : 

" ' Why weep ye, then, for him, who, having run 
The bound of man's appointed years, at last 
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, 
Serenely to his final rest has passed ; 
Wliile the soft memory of his virtues yet 
Lingers, like twilight hues when the bright sun has set ?' 

"It would be doing no injustice, sir, to the living or the dead 
to say that no better specimen of the true American character 
can be found in our history than that of Mr. Clay. With no 
adventitious advantages of birth or fortune, he won his way by 
the ellbrts of his own genius to the highest distinction and 
honor. Ardently attached to the principles of civil and religious 
liberty, patriotism was with him both a passion and a sentiment 
— a passion that gave energy to his ambition, and a sentiment 
that pervaded all his thoughts and actions, concentrating them 
upon his country as the idol of his heart. The bold and manly 
frankness in the expression of his opinions which always char- 
acterized him has often been the subject of remark ; and in all 
his victories it may be truly said he never 'stooped to conquer.' 
In his long and brilliant political career, personal considerations 
never ibr a single instant caused him to swei^ve from the strict 
line of duty, and none have ever doubted his deep sincerity in 
that memorable expression to Mr. Preston, ' Sir, I had rather be 
right than be President.' 

"■ This is not the time nor the occasion, sir, to enter into a de- 
tail of tlie public services of Mr. Clay, interwoven as they are 
with the history of the country for half a century ; but I can not 
refrain from adverting to the last crowning act of his glorious 
life — his great effort in the Thirty-first Congress for the preserv- 
ation of the peace and integrity of this great Republic — as it 
was this elfort that shattered his bodily strength and hastened 
the consummation of death. The Union of the States, as being 
essential to our prosperity and happiness, was the paramount 
proposition in his political creed, and the slightest syuijitoni of 
danger to its perpetuity filled him with alarm and called forth 



THE FUNERAL OF MR. CLAY. 255 

all the energies of his body and mind. In his earlier life he had 
met this danger and overcome it. In the conflict of contending 
factions it again appeared ; and, coming forth from the repose of 
private life, to which age and infirmity had carried him, with 
unabated strength of intellect, he again entered upon the arena 
of political strife, and again success crowned his efforts, and 
peace and harmony were restored to a distracted people. But, 
unequal to the mighty struggle, his bodily strength sank be- 
neatli it, and he retired from the field of his glory to yield up 
his life as a holy sacrifice to his beloved country. It has well 
been said that peace has its victories as well as war ; and how 
bright upon the page of history will be the record of this great 
victory of intellect, of reason, and of moral suasion, over the 
spirit of discord and sectional animosities ! 

" We this day, Mr. President, commit his memory to the re- 
gard and affection of his admiring countrymen. It is a consola- 
tion to them and to us to know that he died in full possession 
of his glorious intellect, and, what is better, in the enjoyment 
of that 'peace which the world can neither give nor take away.' 
He sank to rest as the full-orbed king of day, unshorn of a sin- 
gle beam, or rather like the planet of morning, his briglitness 
was but eclipsed by the opening to him of a more full and per- 
fect day — 

'"No waning of fire, no paling of ray, 
But rising, still rising, as passing away ; 
Farewell, gallant eagle, thou 'rt buried in light — 
God speed thee to heaven, lost star of our night.' " 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and, in pursuance 
thereof, the President pro tern, made the following appointments : 

Committee of Arrangements: 
Mr. Hunter, ;Mr. Jones, of Iowa, Mr. Bright, 

Mr. Dawson, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Smith. 

PaU-Bearers : 
]\f r. Cass, ilr. Dodge, of Wis., Mr. Atchison, 

Mr. Maugum, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Bell. 

Committee to attend the remains of the deceased to Kentucky: 
Mr. Underwood, ^Ir. Cass, Mr. Houston, 

Mr. Jones, of Tenn., Mr. Fish, Mr. Stockton. 

On motion by Mr. Underwood, it was 

"Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased, the Senate do now adjourn."* 

The Funeral at the Capitol. 

Pursuant to the order of the Senate, as appointed the day 

previous, the Funeral' of Mr. Clay was celebrated at the Capitol, 

* For eulogies pronounced in tlie House of Representatives, see Appendix, 
note E, page 413. 



256 THE FUNERAL SERMON, 

Thursday, July 1, 1S52. The procession was formed at the 
National Hotel, where the remains of the illustrious deceased 
awaited the last honors of man to man. It was composed of 
puhlic bodies and associations, the military, civic authorities, 
public fimctionaries, foreign and American, and a long line of 
strangers and citizens, who followed the body to the Senate' 
Chamber, where the funeral service, as appointed by the Epis- 
copal Church, was read, and a sermon preached, by the Rev. Dr. 
Butler, Chaplain of the Senate. 

The President of the United States and the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives were seated with the President of the 
Senate. The body of the Senate, the representatives of State 
sovereignties, were grouped, on the two innermost semicircular 
rows of chairs, around the lifeless form of their late colleague. 
The committee of arrangements, and the committee to convey 
the body to Kentucky, and the pall-bearers, with the Kentucky 
delegation in the House of Representatives, as chief mourners, 
and a few personal devoted friends, were also in close proximity 
to the inanimate form of the deceased. 

The members of the House of Representatives filled the outer 
circles, except such parts as were devoted to the large diplomatic 
corps, the Cabinet of the President of the United States, the 
oflicers of the Army and Navy, among whom were Major-General 
Scott, commander-in-chief, and Commodore Morris. With the 
Municipal Councils of the city of Washington, were the officers 
of neighboring cities, and others, official and imofficial. 

. The sarcophagus in which the remains were inurned, resem- 
bled the outlines of the human body. The handles, the face- 
plate, the plate for inscribing the name, and other plates, were of 
massive silver, beautifully wrought and chased, having appropri- 
ate emblems, among which appeared wreaths of laurel and oak, 
with a full-blown rose, and sprig of oak with its acorns detached 
from their parent stem, showing the work of the fell destroyer. 

The Rev. Chaplain took for his text the following words of 
the propiiet Jeremiah, chapter xlviii., 17 : " How is the strong 
stair broken, and the beautiful rod !"' and he proceeded to say : 

" Before all hearts and minds in this august assemblage, the 
vivid image of one m\n stands. To some aged eye he may 
come fiirtli, from the dim past, as he appeared in the neighboring 
city of his native State, a lithe and ardent youth, full of ])romise, 
of ambition, and of iiojie. To another, he may appear as, in a 



THE FUNERAL SERMON. 2,'57 

distant State, in the courts of justice, erect, high-strung, bold, 
wearing fresh forensic laurels on his young and open brow. 
Some may see him in the earlier, and some in the later stages of 
his career on this auspicious theater of his renown ; and to the 
former he v/ill start out, on the back-ground of the past, as he 
appeared in the neighboring Chamber, tall, elate, impassioned, 
with jflashing eye and suasive gesture, and clarion voice, an al- 
ready acknowledged ' Agamemnon, King of iNIen ;' and to others 
he will again stand in this Chamber 'the strong staQ'' of the be- 
wildered and staggering State, and 'the beautiful rod,' rich with 
the blossoms of genius, and of patriotic love and hope, the life 
of youth still remaining to give, animation, grace, and exhaustless 
vigor, to the wisdom, the experience, and gravity of age. To 
others he may be present as he sat in the chamber of sickness, 
cheerful, majestic, gentle — his mind clear, his heart warm, his hope 
fixed on heaven, peacefully preparing for his last great change. 
To the memory of the minister of God, he appears as the pen- 
itent, humble, and trusting Christian, who received him with 
the affection of a father, and joined with him in solemn sacra- 
ment and prayer with the gentleness of a woman and humility 
of a child. ' Out of the strong came forth sweetness.' ' How is 
the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod !' But not before 
this assembly only does the venerable image of the departed 
statesman this day distinctly stand. For more than a thousand 
miles — East, West, North, and South — it is known and remem- 
bered, that at this place and hour a nation's representatives as- 
semble to do honor to him whose fame is now a nation's heri- 
tage. A nation's mighty heart throbs against this Capitol, and 
beats through you. In many cities, banners droop, bells toll, 
cannons boom, funeral draperies wave. In crowded streets and 
on surrounding wharv'es, upon steamboats, and upon cars, in 
fields, in workshops, in homes, in schools, millions of men. wo- 
men, and children, have their thoughts fixed upon this scene, 
and say mournfully to each other, ' This is the hour in which, 
at the capital, the nation's representatives are burying Henry 
Clay.' Burying Henry Clay! Bury tlie records of your coun- 
try's history — bury the hearts of living millions — bury the 
mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the spreading lands from 
sea to sea, with which his name is inseparably associated, and 
even then you would not bury Henry Clay — for he is in other 
lands, and speaks in other tongues, and to other times, than 
ours. 

" A great mind, a great heart, a great orator, a great career, 
have been consigned to history. She will record his rare gifts 
of deep insight, keen discrimination, clear statement, rapid com- 
bination, plain, direct, and convincing logic. She will love to 
dwell on that large, generous, magnanimous, open, forgiving 
heart. She will Iniger with fond delight on the recorded or 

17 



258 THE FUNERAL SERMON. 

traditional stories of an eloquence that was so masterly and 
stirring, because it was but himself struggling to come forth in 
the living words — because, though the words were brave and 
strong, and beautiful and melodious, it was felt that behind 
them, there was a soul, braver, stronger, more beautiful, and more 
melodious than language could express. She will point to a 
career of statesmanship which has, to a remarkable degree, 
stamped itself on the public policy of the country, and reached 
in beneficent practical results the fields, the looms, the commer- 
cial marts, and the quiet homes of all the land, where his name 
was with the departed father, and is with the living children, 
and will be with successive generations, an honored household 
word. 

" I feel, as a man, the grandeur of his career. But as an im- 
mortal, with this broken wreck of mortality before me, with this 
scene as the 'end-all' of himian glory, I feel that no career is 
truly great but that of him who, whether he be illustrious or ob- 
scure, hves to the future in the present, and, linking himself to 
the spiritual world, draws from God the life, the rale, the mo- 
tive, and the reward of all his labor. So would that great spirit 
which has departed say to us, could he address us now. So did 
he realize in the calm and meditative close of lite. I feel that I 
but utter the lessons which, when living, were his last and best 
convictions, and which, dead, could he speak to us, his solemn 
admonitions, when I say that statesmanship is then only glorious 
when it is Christian, and that man is then only safe and true to 
his duty and his soul, when the life which he lives in the flesh 
is the hie of faith in the Son of God. 

"Great, indeed, is the privilege, and most honorable and useful 
is the career of a Christian American statesman. 

'•' He perceives that civil liberty came from the freedom 
wherewith Christ made its earliest martyr and defender free. 
He recognizes it as one of the tweh^e manner of fruits on the 
tree of life which, while its lower branches furnish the best nu- 
triment of earth, hangs on its topmost boughs, which wave in 
heaven, fruits that exhilarate the immortals. Recognizing the 
State as God's institution, he will perceive that his own ministry 
is Divine. Living consciously under the eye and in the love 
and fear of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, sanctified by 
His Spirit, loving His law, he will give himself, in private and 
in public, to the service of his Saviour. He will not admit that 
he may act on less lofty principles in public than in private life, 
and that he must he careful of his moral iuiluence in the small 
sphere of home and neighborhood, but need take no care of it 
when it stretches over continents and across seas. He will 
know that his moral resj)onsibiliiy can not be divided and di.i- 
tributcd among others. When lie is told that adherence to the 
strictest moral and religious principle is incompatible with a sue- 



THE FUNERAL SERMON. 259 

cessfiil and eminent career, he will denounce the assertion as a 
libel on the venerated father of the Republic — a libel on the 
honored living, and the illustrious dead — a libel against a great 
and Christian nation — a libel against God Himself, who has de- 
clared and made ' godliness profitable for the life that is.' He 
will strive to make laws transcripts of the character and institu- 
tions, illustrations of the providence of God. He will scan with 
admiration and awe the purposes of God in the future history 
of the Avorld, in throwing open this wide continent, from sea to 
sea, as the abode of freedom, intelligence, plenty, prosperity, and 
peace, and feel that, in giving his energies with a patriotic love 
to the welfare of his country, he is consecrating himself with a 
Christian's zeal to the extension and establishment of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom. Compared with a career like this, which is 
equally open to those whose public sphere is large or small, how 
paltry are the trade of politicians, the tricks of statesmanship, 
the rewards of successful baseness ! This hour, this scene, 
the venerated dead, the country, the world, the present, the 
future, God, duty, heaven, hell, speak trumpet-tongued to all in 
the service of their country, to beware how they lay polluted or 

unhallowed hands 

'■ ' Upon the ark 
Of lier magnificent ami awful cause.' 

" Such is the character of that statesmanship which alone 
would have met the full approval of the venerated dead. For 
the religion which always had a place in the convictions of his 
mind had also, within a recent period, entered into his experience 
and seated itself in his heart. Twenty years since, he wrote : 
' I am a member of no religious sect, and I am not a professor 
of religion. I regret that I am not. I wish that I was, and 
trust that I shall be. I have, and always have had a profound 
regard for Christianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its 
rites, its usages, and observances.' That feeling proved that the 
seed sown by pious parents was not dead, though stifled. A 
few years since, its dormant life was re-awakened. He was 
baptized in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and during his sojourn in this city he was in full communion 
with Trinity parish. 

" It is since his withdrawal from the sittings of the Senate, 
that I have been made particularly acquainted with his religious 
opinions, character and feelings. From his first illness, he ex- 
pressed to me the persuasion that it would bi; fatal. From that 
period until his death, it has been my privilege to hold with 
him frequent religious services, and conversations with him in 
his room. He averred to me his full faith in the great leading 
doctrines of the Gospel — the fall and sinfulness of man, the 
divinity of Christ, the reality and necessity of atonement, the 
need of being born again by the Spirit, and salvation through 



260 THE FUNERAL SERMON. 

faith in the crucified Redeemer. His OAvn personal hopes of 
salvation, he ever and distinctly based on the promises and 
the grace of Christ. Strikingly perceptible on his naturally 
impctnons and impatient character, was the influence of Grace 
in producing submission and 'patient waiting for Cln-ist,' and 
for death. On one occasion, he spoke to me of the pious ex- 
ample of one very near and dear to him, as that which led him 
deeply to feel and earnestly to seek for himself the reality and 
blessedness of religion. On one occasion, he told me tliat he 
had been striving to form a conception of Heaven : and he en- 
larged upon the mercy of that provision by which our Saviour 
became a partaker of our humanity, that our hearts and hopes 
might fix themselves on Him. On another occasion, when he 
was supposed to be very near his end, I expressed to him the 
hope that his mind and heart were at peace, and that he was able 
to rest with cheerful confidence on the promises and merits of the 
Redeemer. He said, with much feeling, that he endeavored to, 
and trusted that he did repose his salvation upon Christ; that it 
was too late for him to look at Christianity in the light of specu- 
lation ; that he had never doubted of its truth ; and that he now 
wished to throw himself upon it as a practical and blessed 
remedy. Very soon after this, I administered to him the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper. Being extremely feeble, and desir- 
ous of having his mind undiverted, no persons were present but 
his son and servant. It was a scene long to be remembered. 
There, in that still chamber, at a week-day noon, the tides 
of life all flowing strong around us, three disciples of the 
Saviour — the minister of God, the dying statesman, and his 
servant, a partaker of the like precious faith — commemorated 
their Saviour's dying love. He joined in the blessed sacrament 
with great feeling and solemnity — now pressing his hands to- 
gether, and now spreading them forth, as the words of the serv- 
ice expressed the feelings, desires, supplications, and thanksgiv- 
ings of his heart. After this he rallied, and again I was per- 
mitted frequently to join witii him in religious services, conv^er- 
sation, and prayer. He grew in grace, and in the knowledge 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Among the books 
which he read most, were Jay's ^Morning and Evenin<T Exer- 
cises, the Life of Dr. Chahners, and the Clu-islian Piiilosopher 
Triumphant in Death. His hope continued to the end, though 
true and real, to be tremulous with humility rather than raptur- 
ous with assurance. When he felt most the weariness of his 
protracted suilerings, it sufliced to suggest to him tiiat his 
Heavenly Father doubtless knew that, after a life so long, 
stirring, and tempted, such a discipline of chastening and 
sutlering was needful to make him meet for the inheritance of 
the s lints ; and at once the words of meek and patient acquies- 
cence escaped his lips. 



THE FUNERAL SERMON. 261 

'' Exhausted nature at length gave way. On the last occasion 
when I was permitted to oiler a hrief prayer at his bedside, his 
last words to me were that he had hope only in Christ, and that the 
prayer which I had otlered for Ilis pardoning love and His sanc- 
tifying grace, included every thing which the dying need. On 
the evening previous to his departure, sitting an hour in silence 
by his side, I could not but realize, when I heard him in the 
slight wanderings of his mind to other days, and other scenes, 
murmuring the words, ' My mother ! inother ! mother!' and say- 
ing 'My dear irifc,' as if she were present ; I could not but realize 
then, and rejoice to think how near was the blessed reunion of 
his heart with the loved dead and with her — our dear Lord 
gently smooth her passage to the tomb ! — who must soon follow 
him to his rest, whose spirits even then seemed to visit and to 
cheer his memory and his hope. Gently he breathed his soul 
away into the spirit world. 

" ' How bless'd the righteous when they die ! 
AVhen holy souls retire to rest, 
How mildly beams the closing eye ! 

How gently heaves the expiring breast ! 

" ' So fades a summer cloud away ; 

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; 
So gently shuts the eye of day ; 

So dies the wave upon the shore !' 

" Be it ours to follow him in the same humble and submis- 
sive faith to Heaven. Could he speak to us the counsels of his 
latest human and of his present heavenly experience, sure I am 
that he would not only admonish us to cling to the Saviour in 
sickness and in death, but abjure us not to deldy to act upon our 
first convictions, that we might give our best power and fullest 
influence for God, and go to the grave with a hope unshadowed 
by the long worldliness of the past, and darkened by no films 
of fear and doubt resting over the future ! 

" The strong staff is broken, and the beautiful rod despoiled of 
its grace and bloom ; but in the light of the eternal promises, and 
by the power of Christ's resurrection, we joyfully anticipate the 
prospect of seeing that broken staff erect, and that beautiful rod, 
clothed with celestial grace, and blossoming with undying life 
and blessedness, in the paradise of God." 

The funeral cortege, appointed by the Senate to accompany 
the remains of Mr. Clay to Lexington, Kentucky, with numer- 
ous friends of the deceased, left Washington after the solemn 
services at the Capitol were concluded, and proceeded on their 
mournful journey, by way of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 
York, Albany, Buffalo, Lake Erie, Cleveland, Columbus, Cin- 



262 THE FUNERAL. 

cinnati, Louisville, and Frankfort, arriving at Lexington Friday- 
evening at sundown, the 9th of July. After the ceremonies of 
reception by the Committee of Lexington, from the charge of 
the Committee of the Senate, the body was escorted to Ashland 
by the military, and an immense concourse of people, and de- 
posited there in charge of the heart-stricken widow and the be- 
reaved family. The final obsequies were celebrated on Satur- 
day, the 10th of July, an account of which will be found in the 
Appendix.* 

* See Note F, page 438. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RESUME OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 

" The Mill-Boy of the Slashes" of Hanover, in Virginia, was 
of humble but respectable origin. His shop-training behind 
the counter at Richmond, Virginia, was a brief apprenticeship, 
and conld not be put down as having an important influence on 
his future life, except as a stepping-stone to a clerkship in the 
office of the High Court of Chancery of Virginia, where he at- 
tracted the attention of Chancellor Wythe, who solicited and ob- 
tained his occasional services in the capacity of an amanuensis. 
It was this relation which introduced the lad to the chances of a 
high destiny, all, as ever after, depending on himself. He inter- 
ested and pleased the Chancellor, and became useful, we might 
say, indispensable to him, and the Chancellor, in turn, was dis- 
posed to serve the boy. The discovery and encouragement of 
talent must be a high gratification to a benevolent mind. It did 
not take long for Chancellor Wythe, being in daily and imimate 
contact with this youth of fifteen, to discover his character and 
promise, and the Chancellor knew how to give him advice for the 
occupation of his leisure hours. Thus naturally and pleasantly, by 
mntual attraction, the amanuensis became a pupil, and next the 
companion of a veneralde judge, without interrupting his duties 
as clerk in the office of the Court of Chancery. Four years of 
such a relation, in these two quarters, passed on, and in the 
mean time the youth had attained a high reputation in a debat- 
ing club, which had been formed in Richmond by his instru- 
mentality. Common prophecy began to mark out for him an 
elevated career. By the influence of Chancellor Wythe, he had 
become a student at law under Attorney-General Brooke, and 
having obtained his license from the Court, in his twenty-first 
year, he followed his mother to Kentucky in 1797, whither she 
and his step-father, Captain Watkins, had removed. A poor 
young man, without a penny in his pocket, he opened his office 



2G4 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

in Lexington, which, from tliat day, became his home, and, as we 
have seen, he was buried there in 1852, fifty-five years after he 
had entered the place as a young lawyer. In a speech dehvered 
at Lexington, on his retirement from the Senate, in 1842, he 
told the people then how mucii pleasure he had on receiving his 
first fee as a lawyer — fifteen shillings — for he was then in need 
of it. But he soon rushed into a lucrative practice. 

The youth, Henry Clay, had acquired a brilliant reputation 
before he left Richmond ; but what was of great importance to 
him in after life, he had formed acquaintances there, several of 
whom rose to eminence in the State and in the nation, such as 
John Marshall, afterward Chief Justice of the United States, 
Edward Pendleton, Spencer Roane. Bushrod Washington, and 
many others known to fame. The Private Correspondence of 
Henry Clay, in which Chief Justice Marshall and Judge Brooke 
figure so considerably, will indicate the importance of these early 
friendships, and the deep personal interest which the parties felt 
in each other through life. 

The early marriage of Mr. Clay, at the age of twenty-two, to 
a daughter of Colonel Hart, of Lexington, four years younger 
than himself, contributed greatly to the respectability of his posi- 
tion and to the weight of his character. He had eleven children, 
six daughters and five sons, and left Mrs. Clay a widow, with 
only four of the eleven children remaining, Theodore Wythe, 
Thomas H., James B., and John M. Clay, aged relatively in the 
order here named. Two of the daughters died in infancy, t\vo 
at fourteen, and two after they were married and had children. 
Colonel Henry Clay fell at the battle of Buena Vista, leaving a 
family. Thomas H. and James B. Clay both have families. 
Li 1845 Mr. Clay had fifteen grand-children, with some increase 
since that time, whether in number we can not say, as some have 
died. 

It is not improbable that ^Ir. Clay would have remained in 
Virginia, and spent his life there, if Captain AVatkins, his step- 
father, had not removed to Kentucky. It was natural that a son 
of such filial regard, should follow his mother. Tlie fame of 
'* The Mill-Boy of the Slashes" was acquired in the service of 
liis mother. The Rev. Dr. Butler tells us, in his funeral sermon 
at the Cai)itul, that', while sitting by the bedside of Mr. Clay the 
night before he died, he heard him say, apparently in the wan- 
derings of his mind back to other days, unconscious of the pres- 



AND CnARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 265 

ence of other persons, and probably unconscious of his present 
condition, " My mother ! mother ! mother !'' And tlien, as if his 
wife were present, lie would say, " My dear wife !" It was sucli a 
heart, uttering its filial alfection in the struggles of death, so long 
after his mother was dead, himself now a man of seventy-five, 
that followed the mother to Kentucky. But for that, Virginia 
might have had her son to the last, and she would have honored 
him. She would never have rejected him, as she afterward did. 

On the hypothesis that Henry Clay had remained in Virginia, 
and grown up a son and citizen of that State, and lived and 
enacted his part, and made his grave there, he would undoubt- 
edly have risen to control the policy of the State, witli equal in- 
fluence, probably, on that of the nation, as that which he exer- 
cised in his actual career. That influence might even have been 
greater. It is natural to suppose, on this hypothesis, that Vir- 
ginia would have had a very different history, and that she might 
have retained her leading influence in the family of States, with 
Hemy Clay as her guiding star. He would have evoked the 
hidden treasures of her wealth, and kept her forward as the Em- 
pire State, in her political importance, if not in her commercial 
grandeur. Her water-power at the city of Richmond alone, is 
suflicient to have built a Lowell there, and there is no counting 
her dormant wealth of this description, and of others scattered 
over the State — all of which lies in abeyance to such a train of 
enterprise as Mr. Clay would have guided her to. She boasts of 
one Washington. If Mr. Clay had stayed with her, she might 
have boasted of another ; for he, too, could have been no other 
than a national man. But how has Virginia fallen short of such 
a destiny, by the narrow views of her leading statesmen ! 

But the transplanting of Virginia's son in the far West, gave 
character to the West, gave character to Kentucky, not because 
he came from Vii-ginia, or owed any virtue to her soil and at- 
mosphere ; but because the Creator had gifted him with rare en- 
dowments, such as men anywhere would recognize and honor — 
such as any State, any country, might well be proud of. Ken- 
tucky, no doubt, was destined to be a great and noble State from 
her geographical position, and from the character of her people ; 
but her people will not deny how much they owe to her adopted 
son for her chivalrous character, and for her weight in the coun- 
sels of the nation. It was, doubtless, a proper appreciation of 
Mr. Clay that elevated the tone of her character, and made her 



266 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

what she could not otherwise have heeii. The influence was 
reciprocal, flowing from noble hearts on both sides ; but it was a 
single heart that touched the many hearts, to prompt those gen- 
erous impulses, which might otherwise have lain dormant, and 
which, by continued concentration on such an object, ever before 
the public eye. acquired a vigor Avhich made itself felt as widely 
as the fame of the favorite had spread, following in the same 
track, and diff'using itself over the same field. And not only 
Kentucky, hut the great West owes not a little of its importance, 
of its weight in the scale of public policy, and of its rapidly 
growing consequence, to the fame and influence of Harry of 
THE West. It was fit that the waning commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia shou'd part with a star, which could not find room for its 
orbit in her limits, and which was destined to shed its light on 
the whole Western hemisphere — on the world. The great 
West was its appropriate field in which to rise and set, while its 
circuit embraced the East, and the South, and the North, and 
the American Occident. 

It did not take long for the people of Lexington, and of the 
country around, to discover, on the advent of Henry Clay, that 
they had a young man in the midst of them, of whom they 
miglit entertain high hopes, and be justly proud. His profes- 
sional practice and its emoluments grew upon his hands with 
unexampled rapidity. His eloquence at the bar attracted crowds, 
and his influencce with juries and with the Court was such, that 
clients flocked to his oflice to commit their cause to his hands. 
In one instance, on the rehearing of a cause, he obtained a de- 
cision against the record of the Court, who, on being referred to 
it, said it could not be so. They had been persuaded against 
tiieir own convictions, and their first decision was riglit. How, 
then, could the second be right? A lawyer employed Mr. Clay 
to assist him in an important case where much was at stake, but 
in the mean time he became anxious about it, because he could 
not see that Mr. Clay was giving proper attention to it. On rid- 
ing to court in another county, while in the saddle, Mr. Clay 
asked the lawyer to show the case by the file of papers belong- 
ing to it, wiiich he did, one by one, to the end. " That '11 do," 
said Mv. Clay, and the file of papers was restored to the saddle- 
bags, and they rode on to the county seat where the cause was to 
be tried next day. As the lawyer thought, Mr. Clay appeared to 
pay no more attention to the subject, but was engaged in excit- 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 2G7 

ing company till the cause came on. The lawyer gave np the 
cause as lost. What was his astonishment when he found Mr. 
Clay possessed of every point in the case, and complete master 
of the argument ! The cause was gained. " How is this ?" 
said the lawyer to Mr. Clay. " I never could see when or how 
you studied the case, and I expected to lose it." " Why," said 
Mr. Clay, '• if you ever want me to help you, you must let me 
have my own way." This may, perhaps, serve to show the ce- 
lerity of action, and the intuitive grasp of Mr. Clay's mind, on a 
given case, when the facts and the law were in his possession. 

To this add the consideration of his persuasive powers, and 
the secret of his success at the bar is revealed. Some may, per- 
haps, imagine that Mr. Clay was not a student. This is not 
true. His history at Richmond demonstrates the immense ac- 
quisitions he made in legal learning while there ; and it is be- 
lieved he never undertook a cause in court without legal research, 
if he needed it. But his method of preparation was, doubtless, 
peculiar to himself. His intuitive discernment taught him what 
and how much law was wanted for a particular case, and his skill 
as an advocate brought it to bear directly on the facts ; and his 
vast persuasive powers always made the most effective use of the 
law and the facts with a court or jury. Mr. Clay's legal acquire- 
ments came quick and fast, because he was a rapid reader and 
a vigilant observer of the uses made of legal knowledge by 
others of his profession ; and, once in his mind, he never lost 
them. As in common life, so in the law, his knowledge was all 
practical. If not so learned as some that might be named, his 
learning was always ready for use ; and no one, probably, could 
say that Mr. Clay was ever found engaged in a cause for which 
he was not prepared. What more could or need be said to prove 
a man a lawyer ? 

Mr. Clay excelled as an advocate for criminals, liefore a jury. 
It was in this field that his great powers of persuasion, if he 
had any good ground of argument, carried all before him. Mr. 
Clay's defense of Charles Wickliile, who killed Mr. Bcnning, 
Editor of the Kentucky Gazette, is one of his most remarkable 
achievments of this kind.* Tiiere was some ground of argu- 
ment for justifiable homicide ; and Mr. Clay felt it to be his duty 
to try and save the young man, and lie did save him. A more 
exciting trial of the kind was probably never witnessed ; and it 

* Vol I., Life and Times, p. 90. 



268 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

was Mr. Clay's matchless eloquence that made it so. There 
were several other criminal trials of very great interest in which 
Mr. Clay was engaged.* 

It was natural enough that ]Mr. Clay's talents and popularity 
should carry him into the State Legislature at an early period. 
He served there seven sessions, and was elected Speaker of the 
General Assembly. In 1S06 he was elected senator of the 
United States, to fill a vacancy extending to March 4, 1807, 
during the whole of which he was under thirty years of age — 
which is the term prescribed by the Constitution as one of the 
qualifications for a seat in the Senate. But his age not having 
been challenged, he had no occasion to say, as John Randolph 
did, when he first appeared a stripling, in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, "Ask my constituents." 

During this session Mr. Clay made an able speech on Internal 
Improvements, which has not been preserved, which is the more 
to be regretted at it was one of his first efforts — the first in Con- 
gress — on this subject. 

It was this year, 1806, that Mr. Clay was invoked by Colonel 
Burr, to defend him against the chargp of treason, to which he 
consented, and which afterward occasioned him some trouble 
from political opponents, who accused him of sympathizing with 
Colonel Burr.f ^iothing, however, could be more absurd than 
such a charge. Mr. Clay, at first, on the solemn protestation of 
Burr himself, and in part, perhaps, from his own kind, credulous 
disposition, believed Colonel Burr to be innocent, though from 
evidence adduced, he afterward changed his mind, and was 
forced to admit Colonel Burr's complicity, at least, in the treason 
alleged, and that Burr entertained and furthered unlawful de- 
signs against the United States. ]\Ir. Clay, however, in the cir- 
cumstances of the case, could do no less ilian appear as Colonel 
Burr's counsel, and he obtained a verdict of acquittal for him in 
his first trial in Kentucky. 

In 1809, Mr Clay was again returned to the Senate of the 
United States, and served there ihr.iiigh the 13th Congress, that 
is, two sessions, to March 4, 1811. Three speeches made by 
him during this Congress are preserved, one on Domestic Man- 
vfurturcs, delivered April 6, 1810; one on the line of the Pcr- 
rf«Wo, delivered December 25, 1810; and the other against the 

* Vol. I.. Lil'c and Times, p. 84, iunl onwanl. 

t Sec Private Correspondence, pp. 13 and 14, and Vol. I., Life and Times, p. 87. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 269 

re-charter of tlie United States Bank, delivered in 1811. On 
the first of these topics Mr. Clay had hefore spoken, in the Legis- 
lature of Kentucky, and advocated domestic manufactures as a 
State policy. The line of the Perdido was a national question 
between the United States and Spain, involving much historical 
research, the results of which are well condensed in Mr. Clay's 
speech on the subject. His object was to vindicate the acts of 
Mr. Madison, as President of the United States, in taking pos- 
session of a disputed territory up to the line of the Perdido. 
His speech against the re-charter of tlic United States Bank is 
one of considerable interest, as a contrast to the opinion which 
he afterward adopted and advocated in favor of the bank. 

The country being, apparently, on the eve of a war with 
Great Britain, a general \vish was expressed that Mr. Clay might 
go into the House of Representatives, as a position to which, at 
such a crisis, it was thought he was especially adapted — a judg- 
ment which was afterward proved to be eminently correct. He 
was accordingly persuaded to decline the high dignity of a sen- 
ator of the United States, and to accept a return, from his own 
Congressional district, to the House of Representatives, in 1811, 
for the 12th Congress. All eyes were turned to him as a can- 
didate for the speakership, and he was carried into the cliair on 
the fii'st ballot by a majority of thirty-one in a House of one 
hundred and twenty-eight members. He was elected six times 
after this, in all, seven, and served thirteen years as Speaker of 
the House of Representatives of the United States, before he 
went into the State Department in 1825, having been absent a 
year as Commissioner, at Ghent ; and during the 17th Congress 
he was forced to return to the practice of his profession to re- 
pair his dilapidated fortune, which had been seriously impaired 
by loaning his credit. 

It was in the discharge of the functions of Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and im[)roving his opportunities while 
the House was in Committee of the Whole, to join in the debate, 
that Mr. Clay won for himself immortal fame. It was exactly 
the field for his talents at that period of his life. He was 
thirty-four years of age when first elected Speaker, and forty- 
eight when he retired finally from that office. He had no com- 
petitor for the place that stood any chance of election while he 
was a candidate. Such a Speaker, so remarkably endowed 
for the ollice, the House of Representatives never had, and it 



y 



270 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

probably never will have his equal again. There was scarcely 
a man or boy in the nation that could not recite or sing the 
following lines : 

" As near the Potomac's broad stream, t' other day, 

Fair Liberty strolled in solicitous mood. 
Deep pondering the future, unheeding her way, 

She met goddess Nature beside a green wood. 
' Good mother,' she cried, ' deign to help me at need ; 
I must make for my guardians a Speaker to-day ; 
The first in the world, I would give them.' ' Indeed ! 
When I made the first Speaker, I made liim of CLAY.' " 

The theater on which Mr. Clay was now placed, was one 
which gave full scope to his talents, and called forth all his pow- 
ers. He was not only the head of the popular branch of the 
National Legislature, which, under his influence, became the all- 
potent power of the nation, and continued to be such while he 
occupied that position, but he came to that place at the moment 
when the question of war with Great Britain was pending, and 
which was about to be declared. So urgent was the question, 
that Mr. Madison called a special session of Congress, and on the 
fourth of November, 1811, transmitted a war message. Mr. 
Clay was the friend and confidant of the President at this 
eventful period. He stood between the national Executive and 
the people of the country, at the same time that he presided over 
the immediate representatives of the people, while in session to 
deliberate on these most grave and momentous affairs. Mr. 
Madison was wise in counsel, patriotic, firm, but timid. He felt 
the weight of his responsibility. All know that Mr. Clay, at that 
time of life, was sufficiently bold. The two characters were es- 
sential to each other in this crisis, and in the influential and 
commanding positions which they respectively occupied — one at 
the head of the nation, clothed with the nation's authority, and 
the other at the head of the dominant power of Congress — one 
wielding the executive arm, and the other with his hand on the 
lever to stir up the people to make that arm strong. It was a 
great and difficult problem as to what might be the result of a 
war with Great Britain. Thus stood these two potent political 
agencies, at this critical hour — Mr. Madison and his Cabinet, and 
Mr. Clay and the House of Rei)resentatives. 

The Hon. William H. Seward, iu his eulogy on Mr. Clay, 
pronounced in the Senate the day after his death, says, that IMr. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 271 

Clay "became a perpetual tribune of the people," and that, "he 
converted this branch of the Legislature [the Senate] from a 
negative position, or one of equilibrium between the Executive 
and the House of Representatives, into the active ruling power 
'of the Re])ublic."* We intend no other use of this than a rec- 
ognition of the fact, that the House of Representatives under 
Mr. Clay, as Speaker, was a very different thing from what it 
has ever been since, more especially since Mr. Clay went into 
the Senate. Under him, tlic House was undoubtedly " the act- 
ive ruling power of the Republic," and never more so than when 
he first entered it, on account of the exigences of the time. 
Napoleon I. was in the zenith of his power, and all Europe was 
in a state of war. The necessities of Great Britain, as the lead- 
ing maritime power of the world, compelled her to claim her 
seamen, that were native-born subjects, wherever she could find 
them, and to search for them as they had strayed into tlie mer- 
chant service of other countries, especially of the United Stales, 
where they were most inclined to go. " The right of search," 
as Great Britain claimed, was vital to herself, but often fatal to 
American-born seamen, who were " impressed" into her service 
in the exercise of this right, on account of the difficulty of dis- 
tinguishing between an American and an Englishmen or an 
Irishman ; and Americans were often impressed when known to 
be such. The assertion and practice of this right of search had 
become imperious and intolerable, and the appeal made to the 
American Government and to the American people, by American 
seamen forced into the British service, and compelled to fight the 
battles of a foreign power, even against their own country, if war 
should come, was irresistable. Even the right to impress natural- 
ized American citizens, though native-born British subjects, was 
obnoxious. This practice of the British Government, in all its 
extent, had not only become a wrong, but an insult, constantly 
aggravated by time and manner, by reason of the impunity which 
had characterized its history. There were other grounds of com- 
plaint, but " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights" was the motto of 
the controversy with the American Government and people, and 
flaunted in the breeze over land and sea. 

At this crisis, Mr. Clay was the war-king, to lead the House 
of Representatives, to lead both Houses of Congress, to lead the 
country. Mr. Madison and his Cabinet looked to him, and de- 

* Page 251. 



272 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

pended on his lead. We believe INIr. Clay carried with him 
through hfe a deep sense of the responsibility of the position 
which he then occupied ; and hence his dread of war, when it 
could be honorably avoided. We see it in his whole history, 
in all his public counsels, whenever a speck of war appeared in 
the horizon, in relation to foreign powers, and more especially 
when internal strife threatened the peace of the country. 
Although we came out of the war with Great Britain unscathed, 
creditably, as a nation capable of war on a fit occasion, even 
with a power superior to ourselves in resomces and in ex- 
perience, and although Mr. Clay was himself as much the in- 
strument of the peace as of the commencement of hostilities, it is 
yet remarkable that, in negotiating peace, not a word was said 
of " the right of search," which was the chief cause of the war. 
There were reasons for this. Our Commissioners at Ghent were 
gravely embarrassed.* Napoleon was dethroned and in the Isle 
of Elba. Peace was restored to Europe, and Great Britain was 
in a position to bring her entire navy and all her armies, not em- 
ployed in the East, to bear upon us. A large part of our own 
country was still opposed to the war. It was the darkest hour 
in Mr. Madison's administration. What should the Commis- 
sioners do ? Should they waive the question of the right of 
search ? They were forced to do it. Nevertheless, it was un- 
derstood and believed, that, practically, the question was settled 
against the right, that Great Britain would never enforce it again, 
and that, if she should, the United States would again resist. Such 
has been the result ; and although the question was waived in 
negotiating peace, the object of the war was attained. So far as 
Mr. Clay was influential in this peace — and he is allowed to have 
been greatly sof — the waiving of the question of the right of 
search, was precisely of the same character with the Missouri Com- 
promise of 1S21 : say nothing about the difference, and you will 
never hear any thing about it. So it happened in both cases. 
In vindication of the American Commissioners at Ghent, when 
accused of this silence, Mr. Clay afterward said, on the floor of 
Congress : " True, one of the great causes of the war, and of its 
continuance, was the practice of impressment exercised by 
Great Britain; and if this claim had been admitted [in the treaty] 
by necessary implication, or by express stipulation, the rights ol 

* See Private Correspondence, Chapter I. 

t See Mr. Hughes' Letter to Mr. Clay, Private Correspondence, p. 505. 



AND CnARACTEll OF HKXRY CLAY. 273 

our seamen would have been abandoned. It is with utter aston- 
ishment that I hear it has been contended in this country, that be- 
cause our right of exemption from the practice had not been ex- 
pressly secured in the treaty, it was therefore given up! It is im- 
possible that such an argument can be advanced on this floor. No 
member who regarded his reputation would venture to advance 
such a doctrine." 

But Mr. Clay was the great and controlling counselor for the 
War of 1812. It is understood that, the day before Mr. Madison 
sent in his Message to Congress, recommending a Declaration of 
War, Mr. Clay, and a committee from the two Houses of Con- 
gress, were closeted with him for hours — Mr. Clay using his ut- 
most persuasion — the powers of which, as all know, were not 
small — to overcome Mr. Madison's timidity and hesitation. The 
M'ar was declared : and on the shoulders of Mr. Clay rested this 
tremendous responsibility ; and although he bore himself gal- 
lantly through the contest, inspiring the Government with cour- 
age, prompting Congress -to its duty, and animating the nation, it 
is no wonder that he should ever after look back to the responsi- 
bility which he then assumed, with a deep sense of its gravity, 
and that he should ever shrink from war, when it could be hon- 
orably avoided. We have no evidence that he ever regretted or 
reproached himself for the part he took in these aflairs ; but, on 
the contrary, he said in the House of Representatives, on the 
29th of January, 1816: "I voted for the declaration of w^ar. I 
exerted all tho little influence and talent I had to make the war. 
The war was made. It is terminated ; and I declare, with per- 
fect sincerity, if it had been permitted to me to lift the veil of 
futurity, and to have foreseen the precise series of events which 
has occurred, my vote would have been unchanged. We had 
been insulted, and outraged, and spoliated upon by nearly all 
Europe : by Great Britain, by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, 
and, to cap the climax, by the little contemptible power of Al- 
giers. We had submitted too long and too much. We had be- 
come the scorn of foreign powers, and the derision of our own 
citizens."' 

But still the responsibility, even to think of as a matter of his- 
tory, aU well over, was oppressive. It contributed, no doubt, 
vastly to make him more useful to his country in after-life. It 
was not in him to tolerate the woimding of the honor of the na- 
tion by a foreign power, without resentment, nor to allow its 

18 



274 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

material interests to be unjustly invaded ; but subsequently to 
the War of 1812, he was always the man of peace. He pre- 
vented General Jackson from plunging the nation into war with 
France ; he protested against the annexation of Texas, because 
it would bring on war with Mexico ; and not to speak of his 
other efforts of this kind, whenever war clouds have arisen above 
the horizon, we all know what grand devices he conceived, and 
what stupendous endeavors he sustained, to secure the internal 
peace of the country against sectional animosities, and how, at 
last, he became a martyr to this cause. 

One of the first speeches of Mr. Clay on the War of 1812, now 
extant, is that on the augmentation of the military force, deliv- 
ered in committee of the whole of the House of Representatives, 
December 31, 1811, less than six months before war was de- 
clared, on a bill reported from the committee on foreign affairs, 
to raise thirteen additional regiments for the public service, 
which was passed. The first aim of the war, on land, would nat- 
urally be to invade Canada, where between seven and eight thou- 
sand British troops were posted. A part of Mr. Clay's argument, 
therefore, was, that, after garrisoning our seaports, it was neces- 
sary to have an army in the field against Canada, of sufficient 
force to overcome the British troops, to take iMontreal and Que- 
bec, and to Avrest the Canadas from British dominion — a thing, 
however, that was never achieved. 

" What are we to gain by the war ? it has been emphatically 
asked," said Mr. Clay. " In reply, I would ask, what are we not 
to lose by peace ? Commerce, character, a nation's best treasure, 
honor. * * * England is said to be fighting for the world. 
* * * What are we required to do by those who would en- 
gage our feelings and wishes in her behalf? To liear the actual 
cutis of her arrogance, that wc may escape a chimerical French 
subjugation. * * * We arc called upon to submit to debase- 
ment, dishonor, and disgrace ; to bow the neck to royal insolence, 
as a course of preparation for manly resistance to Gallic inva- 
sion !" We have no space for the argument ; but this is a little 
spice of the spirit which Mr. Clay infused into his speeches at 
this time. 

The next speech we find on record from Mr. Clay, was that 
delivered January 22, 1812, on the increase of the navy. It is 
known how tiie navy had dwindled down into the gun-boat sys- 
tem, under the Administration of Mr. Jelferson, and it was hard 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 275 

work for Mr. Clay and his coadjutors to convert the JcfTersoniaii 
Democrats in Congress, to the policy of building frigates and 
ships of the line. A bill was reported, recommending a blank 
number of frigates. Mr. Cheves moved to fill up the blank with 
the figure ten. This was supported by Mr. Clay, and carried 
by a vote of 52 to 47, though against a strenuous opposition. 
The frigates were built as soon as possible, and the brilliant vic- 
tories which they achieved, established the character of the 
navy in the aflections of the American people, which has never 
yet declined. Here, again, we have seen the fruits of Mr. Clay's 
eloquence ; for the bill would have stood no chance without his 
advocacy. It was the foundation of our navy, which has ever 
since been the pride and boast of the nation. This speech is 
one of the best framed arguments which Mr. Clay ever made. It 
was irresistible, and prevailed. 

Again we find Mr. Clay in the jfield of debate on the new 
Army Bill, January 8, 1813, about seven months after war was 
declared. Our attempt on Canada in the north-west had been 
most disastrous, and in this state of discouragement, the oppo- 
sition to the war, which from the first was considerable, had in- 
creased, and became very annoying to the Administration. The 
bill before the House was to raise twenty additional regiments 
to carry on the war more vigorously, and to retrieve the reputa- 
tion of our arms. It was necessary also to raise money — the 
sinews of war. Money, an army, and skillful generals were the 
pressing needs of the hour. Our army was in disgrace, the 
enemy was exultant, and the nation discouraged. The op- 
position bore down with rebuke and sarcasm, heaping upon it 
reproach and fault-finding. It was accused of having under- 
taken a war without energy or skill to prosecute it. The coun- 
try had an enemy in its face, an enemy in its own bosom, and 
nothing but disaster to feed its courage on. 

The first dash of Mr. Clay, in this great exigency, was on the 
domestic foe. The country and the administration looked to 
him. The House of Representatives, under his guidance, was the 
power of the nation. It was there that the battles of the coun- 
try were first to be fought, and one voice alone could lead the 
troop. He was wanted not only there, but Mr. Madison seriously 
thought of giving him a military commission, and putting him 
at the head of the army. With his versatility of talent, it is not 
unlikely that, with all his lack of experience in military tactics, 



276 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

he would have gained as much reputation in the field as he has 
acquired in the Senate. The army wanted nothing but the in- 
spiration, which he was eminently calculated to impart to it. 
He was the man to lead — in debate, or in arms. It is a remark- 
able fact, that General Harrison wrote to Mr. Clay and desired 
him to come to the army. '•' In my opinion," said the General, 
"your presence on the frontier would be productive of great ad- 
vantages. I can assure you, that your advice and assistance in 
determining the course of operations for the army — to the com- 
mand of which I have been designated by your recommendation 
— will be highly useful. You are not only pledged, in some 
manner, for my conduct, but for the success of the wor. For 
God's sake, then, come on, as quickly as possible, and let us en- 
deavor to throw off from the administration that weight of re- 
proach which the late disasters will heap upon them."* 

A singular coincidence of judgment this between General 
Harrison and Mr. Madison. The general, being in the field, 
invokes, even implores Mr. Clay, in a recess of Congress (it was 
the 30th of August, 1812), to come to him on the frontier, '' to 
assist in determining the course of operations for the army," 
confiding in one who was never trained to military life, while 
Mr. Madison proffers to him the commission of General-in-chief. 
As glorious as was the career of Mr. Clay as a statesman, one 
can hardly but regret that, with such an opportunity, and under 
such auspices, he did not buckle on his sword for the Avar. So 
intuitive have his perceptions ever been, in all the practical af- 
fairs of life that have claimed his attention, and so quick and in- 
fallible his judgment, that one can not but feel that he would 
have dashed into a military career like a well-trained captain, 
and won laurels for himself in winning victories for his country. 
He was just the man to be loved and obeyed by the soldiers, and 
to be followed, wherever he should lead, against the foe. 

Cut to rctmiifrom this digression, which is in part history, and 
m part hypothetical. We have said that Mr. Clay's first onset, 
in his speech on the new Army Bill, was on the domestic foe. 
His rebukes were hurled right and left on those who opposed 
the war, and who thus weakened the arms of the country when 
the greatest vigor was required. The country was at war with 
one of the most powerful nations of the earth, and there was no 
retreat with honor. It was also a war justly provoked by an ac- 
* Private Correspondence, page 22. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 277 

cumulation of intolerable grievances, aggravated by time and 
cii'cunistance. Its early stages had been signalized by mortify- 
ing failures in the movements of our armies. It was time now 
to raise new forces, and stir up the giant strength of the nation. 
Our little navy had done well, and it was only for the army, 
strengthened by adequate numbers, to regain its lost reputation 
by new and vigorous campaigns. On the doings of this, the 
12th Congress, now drawing to a close, depended, in a great 
measure, the honor and fate of the nation. It must provide 
money, an army, and a navy, and put the whole machinery of 
war in a formidable and effective array. This mighty task 
rested very much on the shoulders of iMr. Clay. Coadjutors he 
had in the President, in the Cabinet, in the Senate, and in the 
House of Representatives ; but he was the soul of this great en- 
terprise. He had brought the nation into it, and he was forced 
to carry the nation through it, nor did he relax from beginning 
to end. 

It is not our business here to give a history of the war, but to 
show the position which Mr. Clay occupied in its inception, in 
its progress, and in its winding up. Our growing navy, launched 
on the sea and on the Lakes, began to signalize itself with vic- 
tory after victory, and our armies began to feel their strength, 
and to win fresh laiuels, as in the repulse from Baltimore, in 
compelling the retreat from Plattsburg, and in the hard-fought 
action on the Niagara frontier, until the battle of New Orleans, 
on the 8th of January, 1815, drove back the foe, and finished the 
war ; for peace was already concluded by our Commissioners at 
Ghent. 

And here, again, we find Mr. Clay, not less necessary to the 
nation in making an honorable pacification, than in conducting 
it through the struggles of war. He resigned his seat in Con- 
gress, and took letters to join the American Commissioners at 
Gottenburg, who at'terward adjourned to Ghent, to meet Com- 
missioners from the Government of Great Britain, with a view to 
enter into negotiations for peace, which were concluded on the 
2d of December, 1814. Without derogation from the aid of his 
older and distinguished colleagues, it was as natural for Mr. Clay 
to have a paramount infiuence there, as in all other relations 
which he ever sustained. Christopher Hughes, Secretary to the 
American Commissioners at Ghent, was a very partial friend of 
IVIr. Clay, and when writing to him on a subject which drew 



278 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

fortli all the feelings of his heart, he doubtless spoke what he felt 
to be true : " You did more at that Congress than any other of 
its members, by your tact, your discretion, your moderation, your 
angelic self-command, and your incomparal)le manner ; and I 
will bear this witness before the world — you did more than any 
other to bestow this most blessed of boons, this God-like gift — 
peace among men."* Strong testimony this, but sincere — pro- 
ceeding from the heart, and from the convictions of actual 
observation. For who should know better? Mr. Hughes was 
always at the table, performing his duties as secretary. 

Mr. Clay, then, made the war — we speak of influence — con- 
ducted the war — here, also, we speak of influence— and he was 
chief in the making of peace. It was a great responsibility, and 
a glorious result — a responsibility the weight of which he never 
ceased to feel while he lived — of which we have spoken before. 
Hence his dread of war, foreign or domestic, and his sleepless vigil- 
ance, to arrest and ward olf all causes of war. He that was most 
bellicose, with the insultsand injuries inflicted on the American 
people by Great Britain ni his eye, those insults and injuries 
being avenged, and peace established, put on the meekness of 
Moses, and, like Moses, gave himself to legislation for the good 
of the people. The same spirit was in him as before, but it was 
chastened by Providence. He knew by experience the cost and 
hazards of war, and if it could be honorably prevented, he would 
never risk it. He justly acquired the reputation of the Gkeat 
Pacificator. 

At a dinner given to 'Mr. Clay, at Lexington, October 7, 1S15, 
on his return from Ghent, the first toast given was : " Our able 
negotiators at Giient. Their talents at diplomacy have kept 
pace with the valor of our arms, in demonstrating to the enemy, 
that these States will be free :" to which :Mr. Clay replied, in gen- 
erously dividing the praise equally among all his colleagues for 
the glorious result announceil in tlie toast ; and lie went on to 
state some of the difliculties of the mission. The Uritish Gov- 
ernment had declined negotiation before the last campaign, and 
the first terms ^u-oposed by the British Commissioners at Ghent 
were utterly inadmissable, among which was a claim for the ex- 
clusive military control of tiie Lakes. Our Commissioners drove 
them from one objectionable point to another, till the terms of 
peace, as s])ecified in the treaty, were finally adjusted. " The 
* Private CorrospoiKlence, page oOJ. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 279 

effects of the war," said Mr. Clay, "are highly satisfactory. 
Abroad our character, which, at the time of the declaration of 
the war, was in the lowest state of degradation, is raised to the 
highest point of elevation. * * * At home a Goverimient 
which, at its formation, was apprehended by its best friends, and 
pronounced by its enemies, to be incapable of standing such a 
shock, is found to answer all the purposes of its institution ;" and 
Mr. Clay went on to depict the future of the country in a man- 
ner that has since been fully realized. 

But the next toast was to Mr. Clay alone : " Our guest, Henry 
Clay. We welcome his return to that country, whose rights 
and interests he has so ably maintained at home and abroad." 

Mr. Clay was touched with the manner in which the toast was 
received, and said, "his reception had been more like that of a 
brother, than of a common friend or acquaintance. 

In the inception of the war, through the war, and in the 
peace, Mr. Clay was the prominent man of the Republic. 

Mr. Clay was re-elected to the 1 ilh Congress, and made 
Speaker. One of the first most important measures that came 
under debate was the recommendation of President Madison for 
the incorporation of a national bank. Mr. J. C. Calhoun was 
chairman of the appropriate committee, and reported a bill for 
that object, which Mr. Clay advocated. The bill passed the 
House by a vote of eighty to seventy-one, and the Senate by a 
vote of twenty-two to twelve — was approved in April, ISIG, and 
the second bank of tlie United States went into operation in 1817, 
under a charter for twenty years. It will be remembered that 
the renewal of the charter of the old bank, incorporated in 1791, 
failed in 1811, and that ^h. Clay made a speech in the Senate in 
opposition to it. 

The commercial and financial condition of the country had 
very much changed since 1811. The war of 1812 had put the 
banking system, under the States, to the severest tests, forced 
them into suspension, and left the country without a reliable cur- 
rency. The necessities of the country impelled a reconsideration 
of the knotty Constitutional question, which had been one of the 
principal reasons, though not the sole one, for deciding against 
the re-charter of the old l)ank. The State banks, at that time, 
were in a healthy condition, and it was thought that they would 
not only answer all the commercial purposes of the people, but 
the financial necessities of the Government. But both these ob- 



280 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

jects proved an utter failure, and nothing could exceed the pub- 
lic and private distress which the suspension of the State banks 
brought upon the country. In view of these facts, nearly all, 
President, Cabinet, and statesmen who had refused the re-charter 
of the United States bank, in IS 11, wheeled round, and ad- 
vocated the re-establishment of a national bank in 1816, and it 
was done. Mr. Clay was among the number of those who thus 
changed ground. 

On Mr. Clay's return from Congress, after the bank had been 
chartered, he delivered an address to his constituents at Lexing- 
ton, June 3, 1816, in vindication of his course. He said: 
" When he was a member of the Senate of the United States, he 
was induced to oppose the renewal of the charter of the old 
bank by three general considerations. The first was, that he 
was instructed to oppose it by the Legislature of the State. The 
next was, that he believed the corporation had, during a portion 
of the period of its existence, abused its powers, and sought to 
subserve the views of a jwlitical party. And the third was, 
that the power to create a corporation, such as was proposed 
to be continued, was not specifically granted in the Constitution." 

The first of these objections no longer existed, as the State 
of Kentucky had also wheeled round, and was in favor of a 
national bank. As to the second, besides the check to the 
abuse of power, which would naturally arise in the competition 
of State banks, restored to a healthy condition, the provisions of 
the new law, he thought, were well devised to prevent such a 
result. And as to the third, the real knotty point, which could 
not be so easily disposed of as the first two, the argument is 
fully stated elsewhere,* the sum of which is, that Mr. Clay in 
1816, beat Mr. Clay as he was in 1811. Nor does this prove 
inconsistency, or that the argument was not sound in both cases, 
in view of the facts of both cases; for the state of things in the 
country had entirely changed from ISll to 1816, so as clearly 
to justify the application of the specified powers of the Consti- 
tution to the creation of a national bank at the latter period, 
when the question was not so clear at the former. The con- 
ditions which made it clear had fully transpired in the latter 
case ; and the argument was equally conclusive as that a thing 
may lie done after a statute of limitation has expired, which 
could not be done before — not, however, that our illustration is 
* Lifo aud Times of Heuiy Clay, Vol. II., Chapter I. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 281 

precisely similar to the case illustrated, since the one is absolute 
and needs no argument, and the other contingent and therefore 
always susceptible of argument. But all the contingencies as to 
the constitutionality of a national bank, so far as they had ever 
existed, were entirely relieved in 1816. In 1811, an honest ar- 
gument might have been made on lioth sides, and we believe 
Mr. Clay was honest. But with the light of events, in 1816, 
that same honesty forced him into the position which he then 
occupied. He confessed a change of ground, l)ut there was no 
inconsistency. Thus stands the matter of the only change of 
opinion in Mr. Clay on a great puJjlic question, from the begin- 
ning to the end of his public career ; and considering the premises 
from which he reasoned, he was right in both cases. It was, in 
reality, not a change of opinion, but a conclusion arriv^ed at by 
a change in the condition of the country ; and it is a misnomer 
to call It by the former name. It is fair, therefore, to say that 
Mr. Clay never changed his opinion on a great public question. 

We pass to another pregnant item of Mr. Clay's eventful his- 
tory, as exiiibited in his advocacy of the South American States, 
including Mexico, while in a state of colonial subjection, and 
struggling for freedom and independence. 

The merit of Mr. Clay in this endeavor, is not to be measured 
by a consideration of the failure of the South American States to 
do as well as he hoped they would ; nor is his fame at all les- 
sened by that rule. Mr. Clay himself was born and cradled in 
the American Revolution ; he imbibed the spirit of American 
freedom as soon as he was capable of drinking it in ; he left 
Virginia with his heart full of it ; and his position in Kentucky 
was in all respects calculated to increase its ardor. He made 
Kentucky, and Kentucky made him. The influence between 
these two parties, the one on the other, were reciprocal through- 
out Mr. Clay's public career, more especially in the former part of 
it. As he fired up in love of freedom, the State fired up, and 
the State reflected back on him the flame which he had kindled. 
There was no time in the early part of Mr. Clay's career, when 
these reciprocal influences were not in vigorous and lively action. 
They never cooled oil", but only grew more fervid. 

And then, again, that admirable constitution of the American 
Confederacy, which transfers the patriotic virtue that grows up 
in the heart of any one State, to the heart of the Union, to grow 
and thrive in the concentrated fires of a national feelins. was 



282 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

cumulative in its effects on the heart of Mr. Clay, as he found 
himself, by the partiality of his adopted State, a member of the 
national Legislature, installed in the highest pinnacle of observa- 
tion and iutluence. Never ungrateful for, and never forgetting 
his relations to Kentucky, he now found himself sustaining most 
important and interesting relations to a wider sphere. He now 
looked down on the whole family of States with the same feel- 
ins which was born and nourished in one of them, intensified in 
proportion as the field was greater, and as the objects were more 
magnificent. There was never a time to rest, never a season for 
the abatement of this patriotic ardor ; but all events, as one 
succeeded to the other, contributed to fan the flame. He could 
not return to his adopted State without being greeted, nor to the 
capital of the nation without being \velcomed. All things raised 
him to a higher and more influential position, and as he becam.e 
known to the wide country, the nation adopted him as the State 
of Kentucky had done. Here again the influences were recip- 
rocal : he acted on the nation, and the nation acted on him ; as 
he ennobled the American people in the eyes of the world, the 
American people ennobled him ; and the fei-vors of his patriotism 
grew in proportion. 

Then came the war of 1812, only to augment the importance 
of his position, and to intensify his feelings of devotion to the 
cause of freedom. We have seen how he regarded that war — 
with what a lofty bearing he helped to carry the nation through 
it, and to bring the nation out of it ; and then to apply his great 
abilities to re-establish the public affairs of the country on a per- 
manent platform of peace. 

After such a school of training, never tiring, never abating a 
whit of his devotion to the interests of his own State and of the 
nation — now a national man — nay more, a man for all nations, 
so far as it was proper for liim to cherish such a comprehensive 
jjliilaiithropy, and so far as it could be done, without neglecting 
the duties which he owed to his own country ; it was in such a 
position and in such circumstances, that Mr. Clay opened his 
eyes on the South American States, struggling for emancipation, 
as did our forefathers, when they struck for independence of 
the British crown. It was not for Mr. Clay to calculate, but to 
Sfjinpat/rizr. From ih(> nature of his history, and from the 
nature of the man, his whole moral being was only fltted to look 
on this s]ieclacle with the most intense concern. Sagacity he 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 283 

had ; and besides that which was natural to him, he had the 
well-earned sagacity of a statesman. These rebelhous provinces 
had takcMi an irretrievable step, and henceforth, with them, it was 
freedom or slavery ; and with their leaders and captains, it was 
victory or a halter. They were all a part of America, too, and 
they had only followed our example. They must have been in- 
fluenced, and very likely were decided by it. What a glorious 
prospect, that this American continent should all be emancipated 
from Earo}x;an despotism, and constitute one great family of free 
and independent States ! 

Such, doubtless, Avas the vision of Mr. Clay, when, in 1817, 
self-moved and alone, he brought forward the proposal, in the 
American Congress, that our Government should recognize the 
independence of the South American States, which were then in 
a revolutionary struggle against their mother-country, as our 
fathers were when France came to our aid, and without whose 
aid, the colonies, most likely, would have been reduced to sub- 
jection. Mr. Clay did not consult : he was moved by-sympathy ; 
and his first effort, though unsuccessful, made a deep imin'ession 
on Congress, on the country, and especially on the people of 
South America, whose leaders caused his speeches to be trans- 
lated, and read in presence of their armies. The name of Henry 
Clay, as the advocate of South American freedom, in the Con- 
gress of North America, was not only eulogized by the public 
organs of the South American States, but celebrated in song, in 
popular ballads, and was as familiarly known among the people 
of those States as in the United States,* and public monuments 
were erected to his honor. 

These efforts of Mr. Clay for the recognition of the independ- 
ence of the South American States, were conliinicd from session 
to session of Congress, gradually subduing opposition, and gain- 
ing public favor at home and abroad, till, on the Stii of March, 
1822, the President transmitted a message to the House of Rep- 

* The following is an extract from a letter addressed to Mr. Clay, dated at 
Boston, May 19, 1828: "Many years ago, in the House of Representatives, I 
heard you urge, in terms as bold as eloquent, the necessity of the United States 
acknowledging the independence of the South American Republics, and it fell 
to my lot, iifter such aoknowleilgment, to hear you spoken of with enthusiasm, 
from Valdivia to Tumbez, and in more than one instance, to listen to a Castilian 
strain, in which the North American advocate of the rights of the Southern 
hemisphere was classed with the Balcaces, the Rondeaus, and the O'Higginses, 

"T. H. BEXXETT." 



284 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

resentatives, recommending that the measure of recognition be 
adopted ; and the vote, when taken, the 2Sth of the same month, 
showed hut one dissenting- voice! The Supreme Congress of 
Mexico voted Mr. Clay the thanks of the nation for his great and. 
successful exertions in their behalf. It was a work of years, but 
a triumphant result at last. Mr. Clay began it alone, against a 
vigorous ojjposition ; but in tiie end, carried the nation and the 
Government with him, by a general acclamation. It was one 
of the great achievements of his life, and will do him immortal 
honor. 

Mr. Clay's advocacy of Internal Improvements commenced in 
the early part of his Congressional career, and continued to the 
end of his public life. The Cumberland Road is a permanent 
monument of those patriotic endeavors. That he did not fore- 
see how far enterprises of this specific class would be super- 
seded l)y railways, was because no man could foretell the 
achievements which science and art have made in a single gen- 
eration. The original conceptions of Mr. Clay to run imblic 
highways over llie length and breadth of the Union, as a politi- 
cal bond as well as a commercial facility, and as a means of a 
quick and rapid social intercourse, have only been realized in a 
diderent form. Steam, science, and art, have outstripped the 
divinations of the most prophetic. Mr. Clay himself, who had 
once toiled a whole day in traveling nine miles, from Union- 
town, Pennsylvania, to the top of Laurel Hill, never dreamed 
of passing, with almost lightning speed, between Ashland and 
the city of Washington, in a chair as easy as one in his own 
parlor ; and yet he lived to enjoy this luxury. But his vast and 
comprehensive policy embraced nothing less, though at a slower 
rate of movement. He would cover the land with a network of 
firm and well-built roads, he would improve oin- rivers and har- 
bors, to remove obstructions from the former, and to make the 
latter safe and easy of access and exit. He often, and to the 
last, as we have seen, encountered opposition, in the iiighest and 
mdst infiuential quarters ; but with unflagging purpose and en- 
deavor, he gained little by little, time after time, and in the 
whole amount, achieved much in this track of a favorite (to him 
so) public policy ; and he succeeded in making it a favorite 
policy of the nation, so far as popular approbation is concerned. 
He began his public life ni the advocacy of Internal Improve- 
ments, and his last great ellbrt in the Senate, at the close of the 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 285 

Thirty-first Congress, was made in this cause. This subject 
constitutes one of the most prominent points in Mr. Clay's his- 
tory, and Avill forever redound to his honor. 

African colonization, though it has never yet obtained tliat 
pul)lic regard to which its merits justly entitle it, engaged the 
attention and interested the heart of Mr. Clay to a very great 
extent. Through evil, as well as through good report, he stood 
by tlie American Colonization Society, was its president for a 
number of years, and advocated its interests to the last. This 
enterprise presented to his mind two strong, interesting, and at- 
tractive features, one of philanthropy, and the other of public 
policy. He foresaw that, at a time more or less remote, the 
country would need a safety-valve for its black population ; and 
we see that policy distinctly portrayed in his letter on eman- 
cipation to Richard Pindell, Esq., in the Appendix.* 

Mr. Clay hoped that colonization would rid the country of 
slavery. He said in a speech before the Colonization Society of 
Kentucky, in 1829 : " If I could be the instrument in eradicat- 
ing this deep stain upon the character of our country, and re- 
moving all cause of reproach on account of it, by foreign nations ; 
if I could only be instrumental in ridding of this foul blot that 
revered State that gave me birth, or that not less beloved State 
which kindly adopted me as her son, I would not exchange the 
proud satisfaction which I should enjoy for the honor of "all the 
triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conquerors." And 
his proposed scheme of gradual emancipation for the State of 
Kentucky, is evidently nothing less than another form of ex- 
pressing the same wish. 

Mr. Clay's views of a tariff for protection of American arts, in- 
dustry, and labor, constitute a subject worthy of a special notice, 
in a risumu of his life and character. His first effort in Con- 
gress, in this cause, was made in the Senate, April 6, 1810; but 
they began to be more fully developed soon after the war of 
1812 came to a close, when it was sought to get rid of direct 
taxes by a revenue from imposts. With a wise statesman, to 
kill two birds with one stone, is no less a maxim than with pri- 
vate individuals. If imposts must be laid for a competent pub- 
lic revenue, why not lay them so as to protect American arts and 
labor against foreign competition ? As European labor was and 
is so much lower in price than what the American laborer has a 

* Note B, p. 346. 



286 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

right to expect, or will hope for ; and as all labor, in the same 
field of comiietition, unprotected, must necessarily come to the 
same level in price, as water, unobstructed, flows to a vacant 
cistern till it is on a level with the source from whence it 
comes ; so the products of European labor, unimpeded by imposts, 
will flow in on the field of American labor, till the latter is re- 
duced to the same price with the former. This result is inev- 
itable, on the condition specified ; and the principles of the 
science of political economy have decided that the duties paid 
for the protection of a domestic product, are a tax on the foreign 
producer, and not on the domestic consumer, so long as the 
foreign product is prepared for market by cheaper labor than the 
domestic product of the same kind. It is only on this principle 
that importations, subject to protective duties, can be continued ; 
so that all the clamor about consumers being taxed for the amount 
of duty, when it is a duty for protection, is witliout foundation. 

We do not think that Mr. Clay apprehended the operation of 
this principle of political science, as he did not, so far as we 
have observed, avail himself of it. It would have been an un- 
answerable argument against the opponents of the protective 
policy, with whom he had so mnch to do. But Mr. Clay had 
all tlie ground of facts which the operation of this principle pro- 
duced, which he always wielded with irresistible power. It was 
easy enough to construct an argument out of such materials, 
which ought to convince all reasonable minds, though as a de- 
monstration it was always incomplete, till science developed the 
fundamental and controlling principle. The facts all could see ; 
but the reason was occult, till science revealed it. The state- 
ment of the science is a very simple one, to wit, that protective 
duties are never a tax to the consumer, so long as the foreign 
producer can aflbrd to come into the same market. Prohibitory 
duties may be a tax to the consumer, though they are not always 
and necessarily so, as a great and wide competition in the do- 
mestic product may prevent it, and reduce the price below what 
the foreign producer, if ho had the market, could or would ever 
sell for. This, then, is the rule of political science : that, so 
long as the foreign producer can aflbrd to come into the market, 
protective duties aj-e never a tax on consumers ; but the foreign 
producer pays the tax for the privilege of vending his wares. 
True, it is paid indirectly; but that makes no diflerence as to 
who pays it. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 287 

The first protective TarilT was adopted in 18 10. The bill 
was brought in by Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, and advo- 
cated by Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Clay came to its support most 
heartily, and bent his efforts very especially on the protection of 
woolen fabrics. This Tariff proved altogether inadequate for 
protection, and in 1820 another attempt was made in a new bill, 
to remedy the defects of the law of 1816, which passed the 
House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate. On this oc- 
casion Mr. Clay made one of his most effective speeches on the 
protective policy, April 26th. In 1824 the commercial embar- 
rassments of the country had been such, that Congress promptly 
came to the rescue in enacting the Tariff of that year, of which 
Mr. Clay said, eight years afterward, in the Senate : " If I were 
to select any term of seven years since the adoption of the pres- 
ent Constitution, which exhibited a scene of the most wide- 
spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly that term of 
seven years which immediately preceded the establishment of the 
Tariff of 1824 ; and if the term of seven years were to be selected, 
of the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since 
the adoption of the present Constitution, it would be exactly that 
seven years which immediately followed the passage of the Tariff 
of 1824." It was in the debate on this Tariff, that Mr. Clay 
made one of his masterly efforts, occupying two days, March 30 
and 31, 1824 ; and it was on this occasion that he advocated the 
adoption of an American System. From that time, it has borne 
that name, with the distinctive and peculiar significancy, which 
Mr. Clay then attached to it — The American System, 

The Missouri Compromise of 1821, was the first brilliant af- 
fair of the kind, in which Mr. Clay was engaged.* Having had 
occasion elsewhere to depict this event in its appropriate coloring, 
we shall not enlarge upon it here. It was an epoch inaugurating 
an extraordinary species of legislation, to avert evils which could 
find no remedy in the direct and ordinary operation of the Con- 
stitution and laws of the country. It was left for the genius of 
Mr. Clay to devise a remedy for this particular crisis, and to intro- 
duce a system of remedies for other crises of a similar character. 
A direct operation of the Constitution and laws would have pro- 
duced a convulsion throughout the whole Union ; and there was 

* See his own account of it in the Appendix, page 334 and onward ; and the 
law itself, page 337. 



288 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

no other man at that time in the nation, who could see how this 
could be avoided. 

It was the necessity of the hour which suggested the way to 
the mind of Mr. Clay. The Constitution must not be violated, 
and this difficulty must be surmounted. Let the Constitution 
lie in abeyance, till a proposal from Congress to Missouri can be 
considered ; wait a little ; forbear ; and then, peradveuture, the 
Constitution may go on its way rejoicing. And so it did. Such 
was the Missouri Compromise of 1821, and such the result. 
When the crisis had passed, so smoothly, one would have sup- 
posed, in view of the calm, that no difficulty had ever occurred. 
And yet there was a difficulty which filled the land with dis- 
quiet, and timid minds with dismay. 

The feud between Mr. Clay and General Jackson, which had 
such important results, originated in strictures made by Mr. Clay 
in Congress, in a speech delivered January 17, 1819, on the 
General's conduct of the Seminole war. General Jackson had 
been severe in his treatment of the Indians that fell into his 
hands, punished two chiefs with death, hung two traders, Ar- 
buthnot and Ambrester, who were British subjects, pushed his 
march iuto the Spanish temtories of Florida, took possession of 
St. Marks, Pensacola, and the Barancas, when Spain and the 
United States were at peace. In view of these high-handed 
measures, resolutions of censure were moved in the House of 
Representatives, and Mr. Clay supported them. Mr. Clay thought 
badly of this conduct, and all knew that he could only be honest 
in dealing with it. It was natural that General Jackson should 
writhe under such rebuke, as he doubtless did ; nor was it very 
natural that he should ever forget it, as he certainly did not. 
Nothwithstanding, when General Jackson came to Washington, 
Mr. Clay left his card for him at his lodgings ; but General Jack- 
son made no response to it. It was not in the nattu'e of Mr. 
Clay to cherish personal enmity. 

In this case, he had none to begin with. There is no con- 
ceivable motive for his censure of General Jackson's conduct, 
but that of public justice — to throw off the responsibility of those 
transactions from the shoulders of the American Government, on 
the individual v^'ho had so manifestly transcended his instructions, 
while acting; in the name and on the authoritv of the Government, 
and who had violated the rules of civiliKcd warfare. The Pres- 
ident [Mr. Monroe] and his Cabinet were somehow committed 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 289 

to defend General Jackson, and their inflncncc was snflicient to 
defeat the resolutions of censure in the House of Representa- 
tives. 

How far General Jackson thought on revenge for the speech 
of Mr. Clay, it would not be suitable even to conjecture. It was 
thought and believed by Mr. Clay and his friends, and there can 
be no doubt, that he was at the foundation of the charge of 
" Bargain and Corruption" brought against Mr. Clay, when he 
voted for Mr. Adams for President, and accepted the Department 
of State. One thing is certain, whether General Jackson was 
himself the author of the charge or not, he cherished and enter- 
tait)ed it with a tenacity that was never willing to part with it. 
To make it believed, would make him President. Among the 
ignorant and credulous, who delight in slander, and who trade in 
it — especially if the mark be a lofty one — it was believed, and 
General Jackson and his friends and followers made the most of 
it. They soon found what a pregnant political capital it was. 
General Jackson had won a well-merited fame at the battle of 
New Orleans, and he received the highest vote in the Electoral 
Colleges— 99 to 84 for Mr. Adams, and 41 for Mr. Crawford — 
and the appeal addressed to the people of the United States was, 
that, for this reason, General Jackson was best entitled to the 
Presidency, notwithstanding that Mr. Adams's popular vote was 
greater than General Jackson's, which, really, was the fair rule 
of reckoning in an argument of this kind. But it was charged 
that Mr. Clay had sold himself to Mr. Adams for office ! And 
the charge was confirmed in the popular belief, by the fact, that 
Mr. Clay actually accepted the office. General Jackson, it was 
said, had been defrauded of his rights by a bargain between Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Clay ; and in the circumstances of the case, it 
proved to be the best political capital that ever fell to the lot of 
any man, or of any party. To this false accusation — proved to 
be false, and known to be false by those who uttered it — Gen- 
eral Jackson owed all his popularity, and his election twice as 
President of the United States. It can not be denied that, for 
such an object, the temptation to so stupendous a fraud was a 
strong one, and the reward was only commensurate with the 
wrong. 

It was not in the power even of such a conspiracy to destroy 
Mr. Clay. It only baiTcd him from a position in which he could 
have done the greatest service to his country. Apart from the 

19 



290 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

influences of this infamous plot, no man, and no fair political 
contest, could have stood in the way of Mr. Clay's immense 
popularity. Apart from this, not even the military eclat of Gen- 
eral Jackson would have availed him. It was by appealing to 
the ignorant masses, who could more easily be deceived, that a 
great party was formed, strong in numbers, to avenge the alleged 
wrongs of a military chieftain, and carry him into power on their 
shoulders. It was introducing a new and pernicious principle 
into the body politic, by arraying the poor against the rich, the 
less inforaied asainst the better informed, and bringing a dark 
cloud over all the more hopeful aspects of our social and politi- 
cal institutions. It was an epoch of a melancholy augury, open- 
ing a new era in the politics of the country, the fundamental 
maxim of which is. By any means, false or foul, obtain the con- 
trol of the masses in the lower strata of society. So long as j\Ir. 
Clay lived, though he could never gain his own rightful position, 
so well earned by his patriotism and public services, he was the 
leader of a party tliat struggled hard to overcome these malign 
influences, and more tlian once partially triumphed ; but by de- 
serting their leader, they became disorganized, and lost their 
power. Mr. Clay is gone ; and whether the hopes of the coun- 
try have died with him, is the problem of the future. The grand 
obstacle to his more useful career, was the Great Conspiracy* 
formed against liim in 1825. 

Mr. Clay's own opinion of General .Jackson's responsibility in 
the charge of " Bargain," was expressed, in a dignified manner, 
at the dinner given him at Washington, on his retirement from 
the State Department, as follows: " That citizen [General Jack- 
son] has done me great injustice. It was inflicted, as I must 
ever believe, for the double purpose of gratifying private resent- 
ment, and promoting personal ambition. When, during the late 
canvass, he came forward in the j)ul)lic prints under his proper 
name, with his charge against me, and summoned before the 
public tribunal his friend and only witness (Mr. Buchanan) to 
estal)lish it, the anxious attention of the whole American people 
was directed to the testimony which that witness might render. 
He promptly obeyed the call, and testified to what he knew. 
He could say nothing, and he said nothing which cast the slight- 
est shade upon my iionor or integrity. What he did say was the 

* For ii full iiocoimt uf this conspiracy, see VoL I. of Life and Times, Chap- 
ters 14th, 15tli, IGth, 17th, and 18th. 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 291 

reverse of any implication of me. Then all just and impartial 
men, and all who had faith in the magnanimity of my accuser, 
believed that he would make a public acknowledgment of his 
error. How far this reasonable expectation has been realized, let 
his persevering and stubborn silence attest.''' 

The reputation earned by Mr. Clay in the State Department 
constitutes a distinct and brilliant chapter of his life. His states- 
manlike conceptions of the foreign relations of the country, pro- 
cured for him the unlimited confidence of the President, Mr. 
Adams, whose executive supervision of this department was al- 
most merely nominal. Mr. Adams knew that our foreign affairs 
could not be in better hands. Mr. Clay induced the Czar of 
Russia to intercede with Spain for the recognition of South 
American Independence, and thus crowned his previous efforts 
in Congress, in behalf of the South American States, with a final 
consummation. He moved Russia and other European States to 
favor the Greek revolution, and held in check those who were 
opposed to it, till the independence of Greece was also recog- 
nized. First, by his voice in Congress, and next, by his admin- 
istration of the State Department, he secured freedom to South 
America and freedom to Greece. His Letter of Instructions to 
our representatives in the Panama Congress, is one of the ablest 
State papers that ever emanated from the Department over which 
he presided. 

Mr. Clay had been trained in a school which eminently fitted 
him for this place ; and besides the advantages of his experience, 
his inventive genius, which never failed him, and rarely, if ever, 
led him into error, was always available for all exigences. 
He graced the station by his personal accomplishments, dignified 
it by his manly bearing, and raised the Government of the 
United States by the able and energetic discharge of his official 
duties, to increased respect among all foreign nations. 

It was not, therefore, very auspicious to the prospects of the 
Republic, when Mr. Clay, in the spring of 1829, returning to 
Ashland, on entering Uniontown, Pa., sitting on the box outside 
with the driver, to escape the discomfort of having his head 
knocked against the top of the stage inside, in consequence of 
bad roads, said to his friends, as they drove up to the hotel : 
"You see, I am one of the outs ; but I can assure you the ins 
behind me have the worst of it." 

We have elsewhere had occasion to notice the testimony of 



292 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

John Qiiincy Adams to the aliihty and fidelity of Mr. Clay, in 
the discharge of his duties as Secretary of State, as well as his 
solemn appeal to Heaven in denial of the charge of " Bargain" 
between himself and Mr. Clay.* 

It was during ^Ir. Clay's occupancy of the State Department, 
in 1826, that the duel between him and Mr. Randolph occurred. 
In a letter from General Jesup to James B. Clay, given in the 
Private Correspondence,! will be found some interesting details 
of this affair. The relations of Mr. Clay to IMr. Randolph, in 
this and other matters, are also presented in our second volume, 
to which the reader is referred. 4: Mr. Clay also refers to the sub- 
ject in several of his letters in the Private Correspondence. To 
these we now add another letter from Mr. Clay on dueHng, writ- 
ten in 1844, which will be found in the Appendix.-^* It will be 
seen, that, although he was more than once engaged in an alTair 
of this kind, II he never approved, but always condemned the 
practice. Better if he had obeyed his own precepts. But he 
did not then profess to be under the higher obligations of Chris- 
tian principle. 

Mr, Clay remained in retirement two years, after he left the 
State Department, and was elected to the Senate of the United 
States in 1831. He had no responsibility in the enactment of 
the " Black Tariff" of 1828, as he was then Secretary of State. 
It became a law in spite of those obnoxious features thrust into 

* Life and Times, Vol. I., p. 391. The following anecdote, which first ap- 
peared in the Newark (N. J.) Daily Advertiser, from the pen of a Washington 
correspondent, will be deemed worthy of record : " I have frequently observed 
ladies' albums circulating through the House and Senate Chamber, with the 
view of collecting the autographs of members. One this morning, belonging to 

a young lady of , attracted considerable attention. Upon examination, I 

found it contained a page of Avell-written poetry, dated 23d July, 18-t2, in the 
tremulous haud-wriling of John Q. Adams. This piece was descriptive of the 
wild chaos at present spread over our political affairs, and anticipated coming 
events which would bring order out of disorder. The closing verse was as 

follows : 

" ' Say, for whose brow this laurel crown ? 

For whom this web of hfe is spinning ? 

Turn tliis, tliy album, upside down, 

And take the end for the beginning.' 

The meaning of tliLs was somewhat mystical. But by turning to the back of the 
book, and inverting it, on its last page a piece was found \vi"ittA>n with the sig- 
nature of n. Clay." t Page 146. 
X Life and Times, Vol. XL, p. 261, and onward. § Note G, page 451. 
I His first duel was witli Uumiihrey Marshall, of Kentucky. 



AND CHARACTER OP HENRY CLAY. 293 

it by the opponents of the protective policy, for the purpose of 
defenting the hill. It liecame necessary, therefore, to remodel 
the Tiiriir in the 22d Congress, which, notwithstanding the 
al-.atcment of the ol)noxioiis parts of that of 1828, was unsatis- 
factory. The South, which at first joined in the policy of pro- 
tection, and assisted in cstahlishing it, had become violently 
opposed to it; and it was during the 22d Congress that the dis- 
satisfaction of South Carolina ripened into Nullification, and the 
authorities of that State came in conflict with those of the Fede- 
ral Government, while General Jackson was President of the 
United States, and in his second term. General Jackson issued 
his proclamation, declaring the action of the State of South Car- 
olina treason, and that he would subdue it by force, if necessary. 
Governor Hayne issued a counter-proclamation, calling on the 
people and the authorities of the State for obedience. Thus, iu 
1833, stood the affairs of the nation, the General government 
pitted against a State government, and both preparing for the 
conflict. 

General Jackson, in his impetuosity, and in his extreme dislike 
of Mr. Calhoun, between whom and himself had arisen a personal 
feud, had gone too far, or too fast, or perhaps both. But he was 
not the man to tread back. How should he get out of this diffi- 
culty ? He also hated Mr. Clay, and Mr. Clay was regarded as 
the father of the protective policy which General Jackson him- 
self had once declared for. If, therefore, he could put forward 
his own party in Congress, to bring in and pass a bill to kill off" 
the protective policy, he would at the same time make peace 
with South Carolina, and kill off Mr. Clay. It was a grand de- 
vice that should kill two such birds with one stone, and a bill, 
having this object, was accordingly soon concocted, and reported 
to ihe House of Representatives by Mr. Verplanck, which, in his- 
tory, is known as Mr. Verplanck's bill. 

Mr. Clay, seeing that the protective pohcy was at stake, in- 
stantly put himself to the task of heading off this measure, and 
brought into the Senate the Compromise Tariif of 1833. Mr. 
Callioun was then a member of the Senate, and stood trembling 
in his shoes, as General Jackson had threatened to hang him as 
the leader of Nullification. Opposed as Mr. Clay and Mr. Cal- 
houn were, at this time, in their views of national policy, Mr. 
Callioun would raiher take the olive-branch from the hand of 
Mr. Clay, than be hung by General Jackson, or than have peace 



294 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

made with South Carohna by the General, in the way of Mr. 
Verplauck's bill. Thus human nature, in its most natural dev^el- 
opments, favored Mr. Clay's project. Mr. Calhoun was on the 
spot, and in constant communication with the Governor and 
authorities of South Carolina. "Whatever he should agree to at 
Washington, as a peace measure, they would sanction ; for Mr. 
Calhoun was himself the leader and soul of Nullification. The 
whole matter, therefore, was settled on the floor of the Senate 
chamber, and in the private intercourse in that body of the two 
parties to this question, casting the other end of the Avenue, at 
the President's mansion, entirely without the pale of influence. 
General Jackson, who was supposed, and supposed himself, 
to have the game in his own hand, lost his trump the moment 
that Mr. Clay leaped into the arena. The Compromise Tarifl" of 
1833 was framed with the consent of the opposite party, and they 
agreed to it. 

Here is another instance, an eminent example, of the practical 
character and consummate tact of Mr. Clay in afll'airs of State, 
in a great public exigency. It was absolutely necessary to de- 
vise a scheme of conciliation which would have no rival, and 
which would sweep every thing else from the boards ; and it 
must be eflective, conclusive, valid. Doubtless Mr. Clay had to 
sacrifice more in this measure than he could have wished to do. 
But it. was a compromise, and he wished not only to restore 
harmony to the Union, but to save the principle of protection, 
even at the risk of being supposed to have given it up, as many 
at the time said, and many ever since have said, that he did. 
But he did not. He gave to the measure a nine years' lease, 
to 1842, by which time he hoped that the reckless Jacksonian 
policy would spend itself, and the country be able to come back 
to an adequate protective system. We see in this measure of 
1833, not only the great statesman's skill in adapting it to the 
moment, so that it should answer all its desirable purposes, and 
restore peace to the country ; but we see his prophetic discern- 
ment in adapting it to the future. It was precisely nine years 
when the country was fully ])re pared for the tarifl:' of 1842, and 
the principle of protection was never abandoned. When the 
compromise tarifl' of 1833 came to be understood. Mr. Clay's 
popularity rose to a higher point than it had ever reached before 
— higher, perhaps, than it ever reached afterward. He not only 
saved the country from being drenched in the blood of a civil 



AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 295 

war, hnt lie satisfied all the manufocturing and other interests 
that needed protection, that he had done the best thing possible 
for them, in the circnmstances of the case. The tour which he 
afterward made through the Eastern States, was an ovation from 
bea:innins; to end ; and he rested on his laurels. 

Mr. Clay was, of course, a candidate for the Presidency — a 
position which, for the half of his public life, he could not va- 
cate, if he would— when he brought in his famous land bill, at the 
first session of the 22d Congress. His political opponents ex- 
pected that in that measure, he would bid for votes in the new 
States of the rising West. Who ever knew Mr. Clay to swerve 
from his conscientious convictions of right ? He saw that now 
was the time, or never, to do justice to the old States, in the distri- 
bution of the public lands, as they had purchased them with their 
blood. He foresaw that the new States, within whose limits so 
large a portion of the public domain lay, would soon say, " These 
are our lands."' To the utter amazement of the opposite party, 
Mr. Clay brought in a bill that was strictly just to all the States, 
without any regard to its effect on his popularity in the Wdst. 
It was debated, and passed the Senate, but was postponed in the 
House to the next session, when it passed the Senate by a vote 
of twenty-four to twenty, and the House by ninety-six to forty. 
Unfortunately, when the bill was sent to the President (General 
Jackson), there were not so many days left in the session as he 
had a right to keep it for consideration, and having resolved to 
veto it, he put it in his pocket, and returned it with his objec- 
tions at the beginning of the first session of the next Congress — 
a stretch of power which none but General Jackson might pre- 
sume upon. He knew that if he had returned it to the Congress 
which sent it to him, it would have been passed by a two thn-ds 
vote ; and he should have known that he might, with as much 
propriety, have returned it to the Parliament of Great Britain as 
to the 23d Congress, as neither was the body that passed the 
bill. This unconstitutional act was fair game for Mr. Clay, and 
he used it with tremendous effect. It was not till the Wliig 
party had obtained power, in the elections of 1S40, that Mr. 
Clay was enabled, in the 27th Congress, to carry his policy for 
the distribution of the public lands into effect. 

There was a great contest in the second term of General Jack- 
son's occupancy of the executive chair regarding the bank of the 
United States, with the President on one side and Mr. Clay on 



296 RESUME OF THE LIFE 

the other; and tlie President friumplied, so far at least as to 
have his own way. The l)ank fell; the public deposits were 
withdrawn in a very questionable manner ; it was incorporated 
by the State of Pennsylvania ; and Nicholas Biddle, the president 
of the bank, undertook to fight Andrew Jackson, the President 
of the United States, in which conflict the former fell, and the 
bank fell, to rise no more. To this day the United States bank 
of Pennsylvania is regarded, by a majority of the people of the 
United States, as identical with the bank of the United States 
that Avas a national institution — all by the influence of party. 
The former bank, by the perversion of its faculties, in a personal 
feud, came to nothing, and ruined thousands ; whereas, no man 
ever lost a penny by the latter, and it was the best regulator of 
the national currency we have ever had, besides that it trans- 
acted all the monetary alTairs of the Government without charge. 

The Sub or Independent Treasury, which was brought into 
being under Mr. Van Bin-en's administration, repealed under Mr. 
Tyler's, re-established under Mr. Polk's, and which is now 
(I80G) the law of the land for all the banking functions of the 
Government, was vigorously opposed by Mr. Clay, and he was a 
leader in its repeal in the Twenty-seventh Congress, Mr. Clay's 
speeches on the Sub-Treasury, are among his most argument- 
ative and most eloquent discourses. 

In 1834-'35, the subject of French spoliations came before 
Congress, in consequence of the failure of the French Government 
— tlie Government of Louis Philippe — to i)ay the first install- 
ment due to our Government by a treaty made with France in 
1831, as part of an indemnity. President Jackson, with great 
preci|)itancy, sent a message to Congress, recommending a meas- 
ure of reprisals on French commerce, if the payment should not 
be made during the next session of the French Chambers. The 
carrying out of such a measure would, of course, have involved 
us in inevitable war with France. The inflammable temper of 
the French nation was not likely to regard such a proposal in 
any other light than an insult. But the matter was on the 
wing, and how should the dilliculty be surmounted ? All eyes 
were turned to Mr. Clay, whom the Senate had placed at (he 
head of the Committee on Foreign aflairs. Mr. Clay set himself 
to the task, and made an elaborate, but conciliatory report, at the 
same time asserting our rights in the premises, concludmg by 
reconnnending the following resohitidii : '• That it is inexpedient 



AND CHARACTKK OF HKNRY CLAY, 297 

to pass, at this time, any law vesting in tlie President atitliority 
for maiving reprisals npon Freiicli property, in the contingency 
of provision not heing made for paying to the United States the 
indemnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831, during tfie j)i-esent 
session of the French Chambers." It is one of the mrst remark- 
able facts in i!ie history of eitbcr House of Congress, that this 
resokition should have passed without a dissenting voice — all 
through the influence of Mr. Clay in the argument of his report 
and his speech on the occasion ! Tlie news of this decision fol- 
lowed that of General Jackson's recommendation ; and notwith- 
standing the French eml^assador had been recalled from Wash- 
ington, and the American minister at Paris had received his 
passports, as a forerunner of hostilities, the disturbed waters were 
calmed by the oil jwured upon them from the hand of Mr. Clay, 
the indemnity was paid, and there was peace and quiet again. 

Under the administrations of General Jackson and Mr. Van 
Buren, the prosperity of the country had run down to its lowest 
ebb, and the whole nation was prepared, in IS 10, to return to 
the principles of Mr. Clay's public policy. Mr. Clay had stood 
the brunt of the contest, and fought hand to hand witli his op- 
ponents, for a dozen years. He had saved the nation, in all 
that he could, from evil, wliile in the minority, and done all the 
good he could in such a disadvantageous position. He had vin- 
dicated his principles, sown his seed, which had spnuig up, and 
began to bear fruit. The harvest was ripe for his sickle in 
1840, and that was the time when the party which acknowl- 
edged him as leader, should have made him President of the 
United States. ]\Ir. Clay had earned it, and the party was 
under every obligation to confer that honor upon bini. But 
they passed by him, and ))nt forward William H. Harrison and 
John Tyler, the first of whom died in thirty days after he was 
inaugurated President, and the second succeeding, disappointed 
the party, disappointed the nation, disappointed the world ; and 
notwithstanding all the efforts of Mr. Clay and his associates, he 
being still faithfid to his priiiciples and to the party, and still in 
the Senate of the United States, nothing could stay the conse- 
quences of the fatal error of the Harrisburg Convention. 

The immense disasters occasioned by the Tyler treason, 
brought back the party to Mr. Clay in 1814, with compinction 
and remorse ; and the greatest agony that ever shook the nation's 
heart, went into the Presidential campaign of that year. But the 



298 RESUME OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF HENRY CLAY. 

fatal error had done its work, and given an advatange to his 
opponents too mighty to be overcome. The hosts which had 
heretofore mustered under Mr. Clay's lead, had been disorgan- 
ized ; there was no chance to carry out his principles under the 
Tyler administration, which had been brought into power by 
his friends, and for which his friends were responsible ; and 
although it was the most gigantic effort which the political 
annals of the country have ever recorded, it terminated in the 
sad discomfiture of the party whose repentance for past delin- 
quencies came too late. 

In one of the preceding chapters, we have spoken of the fall 
of the Whig party, and of its cause. It is one of the most in- 
structive pages of history. It was once a party of principle ; but 
when it ceased to be such, it fell. After a long struggle, under 
Mr. Clay, its principles had triumphed ; and if the party had ad- 
hered to hi in, there was every prospect that those principles 
would have had a permanent sway. But when they deserted 
him, their disorganization was rapid ; and who shall now gather 
up the fragments? 

The remainder of Mr. Clay's life being given in this volume, 
supersedes the necessity of carrying out this rapid sketch over 
the same ground which the reader may be supposed just to have 
trodden. We have endeavored to make a record as well of Mr. 
Clay's principles as of his eventful history ; and we leave it with 
those who may be disposed, to profit by it. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. — Page 132. 

RESOLUTIONS IiSTRODUCED IN" ^ THE SENATE OF THE UNITED 
STATES, BY MR. CLAY, JANUARY 29, 1850. 

PREAMBLE. — It being desirable for the peace, concord, and harmony of 
the Union of these States, to settle and adjust amicably all questions of 
controversy between them arising out of the institution of Slavery, upon a 
fair equality and just basis, therefore — 

1st. Resolved^ That California, with suitable boundaries, ought, upon her 
application, to be admitted as one of the States of this Union, without the 
imposition by Congress of any restriction to the exclusion or introduction 
of slavery within those boundaries. 

2d. Resolved^ That as slavery does not exist by law, and is not likely to 
be introduced into any of the territory acquired by the United States from 
the Republic of Mexico, it is inexpedient for Congress to provide, by law, 
either for its introduction into, or its exclusion from, any part of the said 
territory ; and that appropriate territorial Governments ought to be es- 
tablished by Congress, in all of the said territory not assigned as the bound- 
aries of the proposed State of California, without the addition of any 
restriction or condition on the subject of slavery. 

3d. Resolved, That the western boundary of the State of Texas ought to ' 
be fixed on the Rio del Norte, commencing one marine league from its 
mouth, and running up that river to the southern line of New Mexico, thence 
with that line eastwardly, and continuing in the same direction, to the line 
as established between the United States and Spain, excluding any portion 
of New Mexico, whether lying on the east or west of that river. 

4th. Resolved, That it be proposed to the State of Texas that the United 
States will provide for the payment of all that portion of all the legitimate 
and bona fide public debts of that State, contracted prior to its annexation 
to the United States, and for which the duties on foreign imports were 

pledged by the said State to its creditors, not exceeding the sum of 

dollars, in consideration of the duties, as pledged, having been no longer 



302 SPEECH ON THE 

applicable to that obj(?ct after the said annexation, but having thenceforward 
become payable to the United States, and upon the condition also that the 
said State shall, by some solemn and authentic act of her Legislature, or of 
a convention, relinquish to the United States any claim which it has to any 
part of New Mexico. 

5th. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia, while that institution continues to exist in the State of Maryland, 
without the consent of that State, without the consent of the people of the 
District, and without just compensation to the owners of slaves within the 
District. 

6th. Resolved, That it is expedient to prohibit within the District the 
trade in slaves brought into it from States or places beyond the limits of the 
District, either to be sold therein, as merchandise, or to be transported to 
other markets without the District of Columbia. ' 

7tli. Resolved, That more effectual provision ought to be made by law 
according to the requirements of the Constitution, for the restitution and 
delivery of persons bound to service or labor, in any State, who may escape 
into any other State or Territory of this Union. 

8th. Resolved, That Congress has no power to prohibit or obstruct the 
trade in slaves between the slaveholding States, and that the admission or 
exclusion of slaves brought from one into another of them, depends exclus- 
ively upon their own particular law. 



SPEECH OF M. CLAY ON THE FOREGOINCr RESOLUTIONS, 



DELIVERED FEBUUARY SXH AND GXH, 1850. 



Mr. President, never on any former occasion have I risen under feel- 
ings of such painful solicitude. I have seen many periods of great 
anxiety, of peril, and of danger in this country, and I have never before 
risen to address any assemblage so oppressed, so appalled, and so anx- 
ious ; and sir, T hope it will not be out of place to do here, what again and 
again I have done in my ])rivate chamber, to implore of Him who holds 
the destinies of nations and individuals in His hands, to bestow upon our 
countiy Ilis blessing, to calm the violence and rage of party, to still passion, 
to allow reason once more to resume its em])ire. And may I not ask of 
Ilim too, sir, to bestow on his hnmble servant, uoav before him, the bless- 
ing of his smiles, and of strength and ability to perform the work which 
now lies Ivfore him ? Sir, I have said that I have seen other anxit^is pe- 
riods in the history of our country, and if I Avere to venture, Mr. Tivsitlent, 
to trace to their original source the cause of all our present dangers, dilB- 
cullies, and distraction, I should ascribe it to the violence and intemperance 
of party sjtirit. To party spirit ! Sir, in the ])rogress of this session we 
have ha<l the testimony of two senators here, who, however they may differ 
on other matters, concur in tlie existence of that cause in originating the 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 303 

unhappy ilifterences which prevail throughout the countiy, on the subject 
of the institution of slavery. 

Parties, in their endeavors to obtain, the one ascendency over the other, 
catch at every passing or floating plank in order to add strength and power 
to each. We have been told by the two senators to whom I have referred, 
that each of the parties at the North, in its turn, has moved and endeavored 
to obtain the assistance of a small party called Abolitionists, in order that 
the scale in its fovor might ])reponderate against that uf its adversary. And 
all around us, every where, we see too many evidences of the existence of 
the sj.irit and intemperance of party. I might go to other legislative bodies 
than that which is assembled in Congress, and I miglit draw from them 
illustrations of the melancholy truth upon which I am dwelling, but I need 
not pass out of this Capitol itself. I say it, sir, with all deference and re- 
spect to that other portion of Congress assembled in the other wing of this 
Capitol; but Avhat have we seen there? During this very session one 
whole week has been exhausted — I think about a week — iu the vain en- 
deavor to elect a doorkeeper of the House. 

And, Mr. President, what was the question in this struggle to elect a 
doorkeeper ? It was not as to the man or the qualities of the man, or who 
is best adapted to the situation. It was whether the doorkeeper entertained 
opinions upon certain national measures coincident with this or that side of 
the House. That was the sole question which prevented the election of a 
doorkeeper for about the period of a week. Sii-, I make no reproaches — 
none, to either portion of that House ; I state the fact ; and I state the fact 
to draw from it the conclusion and to express the hope that there will be 
an endeavor to check this violence of party. 

Sir, what vicissitudes do we not pass through in this short mortal career 
of ours ? Eight years, or nearly eight years ago, I took my leave finally, 
and, as I supposed, forever, from this body. At that time I did not con- 
ceive of the possibility of ever again returning to it. And if my private 
wishes and particular inclinations, and the desire during the short remnant 
of my days to remain in repose and quiet, could have prevailed, you Avould 
never have seen me occupying the seat which I now occujiy upon this floor. 
The Legislature of the State to which I belong, unsolicited by me, chose to 
designate me for this station, and I have come here, sir, in obedience to a 
sense of stern duty, with no personal objects, no private views, now or here- 
after, to gratify. I know, sir, the jealousies, the fears, the ap])rehensions 
which are engendered by the existence of that party spirit to which I have 
referred ; but if there be in my hearing now, in or out of this Capitol, any 
one who hopes, in his race tor honors and elevation, for higher honors and 
hi2;her elevation than that which he now occupies, I beg him to believe that 
I, "at least, will never jostle him in the pursuit of those honors or that eleva- 
tion. I beg him to be perfectly persuaded that, if my wishes prevail, my 
name shall never be used in competition with liis. I beg to assure him 
that when my service is terminated in this body, my mission, so far as re- 
spects the public aflzurs of this world and upon this earth, is closed, and 
closed, if ray wishes prevail, forever. 

But, sir, it is impossible for us to be blind to the facts which are daily 
transpiring before u.-*. It is impossible for us not to perceive that party 
spirit andfuture elevation mix more or loss in all our atiairs, in all our de- 
liberations. At a moment when the White lions'-' itself is in danger of con- 
flairration, instead of all hands uniiing to extinguish the Hamos, we are 
contending about who shall be its next occupant. When a dreadful cre- 
vasse has occun-ed, which threatens inundation and destruction to all around 



304 SPEECH ON THE 

it, we are contending and disputing about the profits of an estate wliich is 
threatened with total subiueision. 

Mr. P esideut, it is pa^ssion, passion — party, party, an 1 intemperance — 
that is all I dread in the adjustment of the gr^at questions wtiich u di:;ppily 
at this time divide our distracted country. Sir, at this moment wc h:.ve in 
the les^islative bodies of this Capitol and in the States, twenty old furnaces 
in full blast, emitting heat, and passion, and intemperance, and ditlusing 
them throughout the whole extent of this broad land. Two months ago all 
was calm in comparison to the present moment. All now is uproar, con- 
fusion, and menace to the existence of the Union, and to the hapjiiness 
and safety of this people. Sir, I implore senators, I entreat them, by all 
that they'expect hereafter, and by all that is dear to them here below, to 
repress the ardor of these passions, to look to their country, to its interests, 
to listen to the voice of reason — not as it shall be attempted to be uttered 
by me, for I am not so presumptuous as to indulge the hope that any thing 
I may sav will avert the eflects which I liave described, but to listen to 
their'own reason, their own judgment, their own good sense, in determining 
upon what is best to be done for our country in the actual posture in which 
we find her. Sir, to this great object have my efibrts been directed dui-ing 
the whole session. 

I have cut myself ofi" from all the usual enjoyments of social life, I have 
confined myself almost entirely, with very few exceptions, to my own cham- 
ber, and from the beginning of the session to the present time my thoughts 
have been anxiously directed to the object of finding some plan, of propos- 
ing some mode of accommodation, which would once more restore the 
blessings of concord, harmony and peace to this great country. I am not 
vain enough to suppose that I have been successful in the accomplishment 
of this object, but I have presented a scheme, and allow me to say to hon- 
orable senators that, if they find in that plan any thing that is defective, if 
they find in it any thing tliat is worthy of acceptance, but is susceptible of 
improvement by amendment, it seems to me that the true and patriotic 
course is not to" denounce it, but to improve it — not to reject without ex- 
amination any project of accommodation having for its object the restora- 
tion of harmony in this country, but to look at it to see if it be susceptible 
of elaboration or improvement, so as to accomplish the object which I in- 
dulge the hojie is common to all and every one of us, to restore peace and 
quiet, and harmony and happiness to this country. 

Sir, when I came to consider this subject, there were two or three general 
purposes which it seemed to me to be most desirable, if possible, to accom- 
plish. The one was, to settle all the controverted questions arising out of 
the subject of slavery. It seemed to me to be doing very little, if we settled 
one question and left other distracting questions unadjusted, it seemed to 
me to be doing but little, if we stopped one leak only in the ship of St:ite, 
and left other leaks capable of producing danger, if not destruction, to the 
vessel. I therefore turned my attention to every subject connected with the 
institution of slavery, and out of which controverted questions had sprung, 
to see if it were possible or practicable to accommodate and adjust the 
whole of them. Anotlier principal object which attracted my attention was, 
to endeavor to form such a scheme of accommodation that neither of the 
two classes of States into which our country is so unhappily divided should 
make any sacrifice of any great principle, I believe, sir, the series of resolu- 
tions which I have had the honor to present to the Senate accomplishes 
that object. 

Sir, another purpose which I had in \k'\f was this: I was aware of the 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. i^C5 

dift'erence of opinion prevailing between tliese two classes of Statf'S, I was 
awaie that, while one portion of the Union was pushing mat ers, as it 
seeiiiod to nie, to the grea'est extremity, another p:irtioii or the Union was 
pushing then) to an opposite, perhaj)s not less dangerous extremity. It 
api'eiired to nie, then, that if any avrangement, any satisfactory adjnsMnent 
could be made of the controver.ed qu' s ions between the two clashes of 
Sates, that adjustment, that airangeineu% could only be successful and 
eftbctual by extracting from both parties some concessions— -not of princi[)le, 
not of piiiiciple at all, but of feeling, of opinion, in relation to ma'tors in 
controversy between them. Sir, I believe the resolutions which I have 
prepared fullill that object. I believe, sir, that you will find, upon that care- 
ful, rational, and attentive examination of them, which I think thev deserve, 
that neither party in s.)me of them make any concession at all ; in others 
the concessions of forbearance are mutual ; and in the third place, in refer- 
ence to tile slaveholding States, there are resolutions making concessions to 
them by the opposite class of States, without any compensation Avha'ever 
being rendered by them to the non-slaveholding States. I think every one 
of tliese characteristics which I have assigned, and the measures which I 
proposed, is susceptible of clear and satisfactory demonstration by an atten- 
tive jierusal and critical examination of the resolutions themselves. Let us 
take u}) the first re-olufion. 

The first resolution, Mr. Pi-esident, as you are aware, relates to California, 
and it declares that Califovnia, with suitable limits, ought to be admitted as 
a member of this Union, Avitliout the imposition of any restriction either to 
interdict or to introduce slavery within her limits. Well noAV, is there any 
concession in this resolution by ei her party to tlie other ? I know that 
gentlemen who come from slaveholding States say the Xorth gets all that 
it desires; but by whom does it get it'^ Does it get it by any action of 
Congress? If slavery be interdicted within the limits of California, has it 
been done by Congress — by this Government ? Xo, sir. That interdiction 
is imposed by California herself. And has it not been the doctrine of all 
parties that w'hen a State is about to be admitted into the Union, the State 
has a i-ight to decide for itself whether it will or will not have slavery within 
its limits ? 

The great principle, sir, Avhicb was in contest upon the memorable occa- 
sion of the introduction of Missouri into the Union, wtis, whether it was 
competent or not competent for Congress to impose any restriction which 
should exist after slie became a member of the Union. We who were in 
favor of the admission of Missouri, contended that no such restriction should 
be imposed. We contended that, whenever she was once admitted into the 
Union, she had all the rights and privileges of any pre-existing State in the 
Union, and that among these rights and privileges was one to decide for 
herself wdiether slavery should or should not exist within lier limits; that 
she had as much a right to decide upon the introduction of slaveiy or its 
abolition as New York had a right to decide upon the introduction or abo- 
htion of slavery ; and that, although subsequently admitted, she stood among 
her peers, equally invested witli all the privileges that any one of the orig- 
inal thirteen States had a right to enjoy. 

Sir, I think that these who have been contending with so much earnest- 
ness and perseverance for the Wilmot proviso, ought to reflect that, even if 
they could carry their object and a^lopt the jiroviso, it ceases the_ m<nnent 
anv State or Territory to which it was applicable came to be admitted as a 
member of the Union. Why, sir, no one contends now, no one believes, 
that with reo-ard to those North-western States to which the ordinance of 

20 



306 SPEECH ON THE 

1787 applied — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan — no one can now be- 
lieve but that any one of those States, if they thought proper to do it, have 
just as nuu-h right to introduce slavery within their borders, as Virginia 
has to maintain the existence of slavery within hers. Then, sir, if in the 
struggle for power and empire between the two classes of States a decision 
in California has taken place' adverse to the wishes of the Southern States, 
it is a decision not made by the General Government. 

It is a decision respecting which they can utter no complaint toward the 
General Government. It is a decision made by California herself; which 
California hnd unquestionably the right to make under the Constitution of 
the Uuit'-d States. There is, then, in the first resolution, according to the 
observation which I made some time ago, a case where neither party con- 
cedes; where the question of slaveiy, neither its introduction nor interdic- 
tion, is decided in reference to the action of this Government ; and if it has 
been decided, it has been by a different body — by a different power — by 
California itself, which had a right to make the decision. 

Mr. President, the next resolution in the series which I have oftered I beg 
gentlemen candidly now to look at. I was aware, perfectly aware, of the 
perseverance with which the Wilmot proviso was insisted upon. I knew 
that every one of the free States in this Union, without exce]ition, had by 
its Lcfrislative body passed resolutions instructing their Senators and re- 
questing their Representatives to get that restriction incorporated in any 
Territorial Government which mitrht be established under the ausjiicos of • 
Congress. I knew how much, and I regretted how much, the free States 
had put their hearts upon the adoption of this measure. In the second res- 
olution I call upon them to waive persisting in it. I ask them, for the sake 
of peace and in the spiiit of mutual forbearance to other menibei-s of the 
Union, to give it ujt — to no longer insist upon it — to see, as they must see, 
if their eyes are open, the dangers which lie ahead, if they persevere in 
insistiiig upon it. 

When 1 called upon them in this resolution to do this, was I not bound 
to offer, for a surrender of that favorite principle or measure of theirs, some 
compensation, not as an equivalent by any means, but some compensation 
in the spirit of mutual forbearance, wiiich, animating one side, ought at the 
same time to actuate the other side ? Wi'll, sir, what is it that is oftered 
them ? It is a declaration of what I characterized, and must still charac- 
terize, with great defeience to all those who entertain opposite o]iinions, as 
two truths, I will not say incontestible, but to me clear, and I think they 
ought to be regarded as' indisputable truths, ^^'hat are they? The first 
is that bv law slavery no longer exists in any part of the acquisitions made 
by us from the Republic of Mexico ; and the other is, that in our opinion, 
according to the probabilities of the case, slavery never will be introduced 
into any 'portion of the territories so acquired from ^Mexico. Now, I have 
heard it said that this declaration of wh;it I call these two truths is equiv- 
alent to the enaetuK-nt of the Wilmot proviso. 

I have heard this asserted, but is that the case ? If the Wilmot proviso 
be ailopte<l in Territorial Governments established over these count! ies ac- 
-juired from Mexico, it would be a positive enactment, a prohibition, an in- 
terdiction as to the introduction of slaveiy within them ; but with legard 
to these opinions I had hoped, and I shall still indulge the hope,tlint those 
who r«'prcsent the free States will be inclined not to insist — indeed it would 
be extremelv <lillicult to give to these declarations the form of positive en- 
actment. 1 had hoped tliat they would be satisfied with the simple expres- 
Mou of the opinion of Congress, leaving it upon the basis of that opinion. 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 807 

without askincj for wliat soi'ins t<> mo almost imprarticahle, if not impossible 
— for auy sul'st-qiient enactment to he introduced into the bill by which 
Territorial Governments should be established. 

And I can only sav tliat the second resolution, even witliout the declara- 
tion of these two truths exitressed, would be much more acceptable to mo 
than with them — but I could not forget that I was proposing a scheme of 
arrangement and com])romise, and I could not, therefore, depart from the 
dutv which the preparation of such a scheme seems to me to impose, of 
oli'ering, while we ask tlie surrender on one side of a favorite measure, of 
offering to the other side some compensation for that surrender or sacrifice. 
What "are the truths, ^Ir. President ? The first is, that by law slavoiy does 
not exist within the Teiritories coded to us by the Repuljlic of Mexico. It 
is a misfoi-tune, sir, in the various weighty and important topics which are 
connected with the subject that I am now addressing you upon, that any 
one of the five or six furnishes a theme for a lengthened speech ; and I am 
therefore reduced to the necessity, I think — at least in this stage of the disr 
cussion — of limiting myself rather to the expression of opinions, than going 
at anv great length into the discussion of all these various topics. 

With respect to the opinion that slavery does not exist in the Territories 
ceded to the United States by Mexico, I can only refer to the fact of the 
passage of the law bv the Supreme Government of Mexico abolishing it, I 
think, in 1824 ; and to the subsequent passage of a law by the Legislative 
body of Mexico, I forget in what year, by which they proposed — what it is 
true they have never yet carried into full effect — compensation to the owners 
of slaves for the property of which they were stripped by the act of aboli- 
tion. I can only refer to the acquiescence of Mexico in the abolition of 
slavery, from the time of its extinction down to the time of the treaty by 
which we acquired these countries. But all Mexico, so for as I know, ac- 
quiesced in the non-existence of slavery. Gentlemen, I know, talk about 
the irregularity of the law by which that act was accomplished ; but does 
it become us, a foreign power, to look into the mode by which an object 
has been accomplished by an(jther foreign power, when she herself is satis- 
fied with what she has done; and when, too, she is the exclusive judge 
whether an object which is local and municipal to herself, has been or has 
not been accomplished in conformity with her fundamental laws ? Why, 
Mexico upon this subject showed to the last moment, her anxiety in the 
documents which were laid before the country upon the subject of the ne- 
gotiation of this treaty, by 'Sir. Trist. 

In the very act, in the very negotiation by which the treaty was con- 
cluded, ceding to us the countries in question, the diplomatic representa- 
tives of the Mexican Republic urged the abhorrence with which Mexico 
would view the introduction of slavery into any portion of the Territory 
which she was about to cede to the United States. The clause of pro- 
hibition was not inserted in consequence of the firm ground taken by Mr. 
Trist, and his declaration that it was an utter impossibility to mention the 
subject. 

I take it then, sir — and availing myself of the benefit of the discussions 
which took place on a former occasion on this question, and which I think 
have loft the whole country under the impression of the non-existence of 
slavery within the whole of the Territory in the ceded Territories — I take 
it for 2:rantod that what I have saiil, aided by the reflection of gentlemen, 
will satisfy them of that first truth, that slavery does not exist there by law, 
unless slavery was carried there the moment the treaty was ratified by the 
two parties, and under the operation of the Constitution of the United 



308 SPEECH ON THE 

States. Now, reallv, I must say that upon tlie idea tliat co instanfi upon 
the con<!umniati()u of the treaty, the Constitution of the United States 
spread itself over the acquired Territory, and carried alouij with it the in- 
stitution of shivery, the proposition is so irreconcilable with any compre- 
hension or reason that I jiossess, that 1 hardly know how to meet it. 

AVliv, these United States consist of thirty States. In fifteen of them 
there was slavery, in fifteen of them slavery did not exist. Well, how can 
it be argueil that the fifteen slave States, by the operation of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, carried into the ceded Territory their institution 
of slaveiy, any more than it can be arjjned on the other side tliat, by the 
operation of the same Constitution, tlie fifteen free States carried into the 
ceded territory the principle of freedom which they from policy have chosen 
to atlopt within their limits? Why, sir, let me suppose a ctxse. Let me 
imagine that Mexico had never abolished shivery there at all — let me sup- 
pose that it was existing in point of fact and in virtue of law, from the 
shores of the Pacific to those of the Gulf of Mexico, at the moment of the 
cession of these countries to us by the treaty in question. 

AVith what patience would gentlemen coming from slaveholding States 
listen to any argument which should be urged by the free States, that not- 
withstanding the existence of slavery within those territories, the Constitu- 
tion of the United States abolished it the moment it operated upon and 
took eftect in the ceded territory ? Well, is there not just as much ground 
to contend that, where a moiety of the States is free, and the other moiety 
is slaveholding, the principle of free !om which prevails in the one class 
shall operate as much as the i)rinciple of slavery which prevails in the 
other ? Can you come, amid this conflict of interests, principles, and legis- 
lation which prevails in the two parts of the Union, to any other conclusion 
than tliat which I understand to be the conclusion of the public law of the 
world, of reason, and justice — that the status of law, as it existed at the 
moment of the conquest or the acquisition, remains until it is altered by 
the sovereign authority of tlie conquering or acquiring power ? That is the 
great prineijile which you can scarcely turn over a page of the public law 
of the world without finding recognized, and every where established. The 
laws of Mexico, as they existed at the moment of the cession of the ceded 
Territories to this country, remained tlie laws until, and unless, they were 
altered by that new sovereign power which this people and these Territories 
come under, in consequence of the treaty of cession to the United States. 

I think, then, Mr. President, that without trespassing further, or exhaust- 
ing the little stock of strength which I have, and for which I shall have 
abundant use in the progress of the argument, I may leave that part of the 
subject, with two or three observati(.>ns only upon the general power which 
I think appertains to this Coveriiment on the subject of slavery. 

Sir, before I apjiroach that subject, allow me to say that, in my humble 
judgment, the institution of slavery ])resents two questions totally distinct, 
and resting on entirely dilferent groun<ls — slavery within the States, and 
slavery without the States. Congress, the (ieneral Government, has no 
power, under tlie Constitution of the United Strifes, to touch slavery within 
the States, except in three specified particulars in that instrument ; to adjust 
the subject of representation ; to iiii}»ose taxes when a system of direct tax- 
ation is made ; and to jjerform the duty of surrendering, or causing to be 
delivered u]i, fugitive slaves that may escaj^e from service which they owe 
in slave States, and take n-fiige in free States. And, sir, I am ready to say 
that if Congress were to attack, within the States, the institution of slavery, 
for the purpose of tlie overthrow or extinction of slavery, then, Mr. Presi- 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 309 

dent, my voice would be for war; then wnuld be made a case which would 
justify in the sight of (Jod, and in the presence of the nations of the carlh, 
resistance on the part of the slave States to such an unconstitu'ional and 
usurpL'd attempt as would be made on the supposi',ion which I have stated. 
Tiien we should be acting in defense of our rights, our domicils, our 
projx'Vty, our salotv, our lives; and then, I think, would be furnished a case 
in wliich tlie slavehoKling States would be justified by all considerations 
winch pertain to the happiness and security of man, to employ every in- 
strument which God or nature had placed in their ban ]s to resist such an 
attempt on the part of the fee States. And then, if unforlunaely civil 
war should break out, and we should ]iresent to the nations of the earth 
the spectacle of one portion of this Union endeavoring to subvert an insti- 
tution in violation of the Constitution and the most sacred obligalions 
whicdi can bind men; we should present the spectacle in which we should 
have the sympathies, the good wishes, and the desire for our success of all 
men who love justice and truth. Far diiferent, I fear, wouM be our case — 
if unhapjiily we should be plunged into civil war — if the two pails of this 
coun'rv should be placed in a posilion lios'ile toward each other, in order 
to carry slavery in'o the new Territories acquired fiom Mexico. 

Mr. President, we have heard, all of us have read of the ellbrts of France 
to y)rcipagate — w hat, on the continent of Europe ? Not slavery, sir ; not 
slaviiy, but the rights of man ; and we know the fate of lier elibrts in a 
work of that kind. But if the two portions of this Confederacy should 
unhap[)ily be involved in civil war, in which the effort on the one side 
would be to restrain the intioductioa of slavery into new Territo ies, and on 
the other side tb fa-ce its introduction there, what a spectacle should we 
present to the contciuplali m of aston'shed in.ankind ! An elfort not to 
propagate right, but I must say — though I trust it will be understood to be 
said with no desire to excite feeling — an eftbrt to propagate wioag in the 
terrtories thus acquiied from Mexico. It would be a war in which we 
should have no sympathy, no good wishes, and in which all mankind 
would be against us, and in wdiicti our own history iiself would be against 
us ; for, from the commencement of the Revolution down to the present 
time, we have constantly reproached our Uritish ancestors for the infoJuc- 
tion of slavery into this country; and allow me to say (hat, in my opinion, 
it is one of the best defenses which can be made to preserve the institution 
in th's country, that it was forced upon us against the wishes of our ances- 
tors, our own' colonial ancestors, and by the cupidity of our Ihitish com- 
me:cial ancestors. 

The power then, Mr. l*iesi.,lent, in my opinion — and I will extend it to 
the iatroduction as well as the prohibition of slavery in the new tenitoiies 
— I think the power does exist in Congress, and I think there is that im- 
portant distinction between slavery outside of the States and slavery inside 
of the States, that all outside is debatable, all inside of the States is unde- 
batable. The Governmeiit has no right to touch the institution within the 
Sta'es; but whether she has, an! to wdiit ext.-nt she has the right or not 
to touch it ou'side of the States, is a question which is debatable, and upon 
which men may honestly and fairly ditier, but wdnch, decided however it 
may be decided, furnishes, in my judgment, no just occasion for breaking 
up this happy and glorious Union of ours. 

Now, I am' not going to take up that part of the subject whicli relates to 
the power of Congress to legislate either within this Distiict — (I shall have 
occasion to make some observations upon that when I approach the resolu- 
tion relatiuir to the District) — either within this District or tlie Territories. 



310 SPEECH ON THE 

But I must say, in a few words, that I think there are two sources of power, 
either of wliieh is, in my judtrment. sutiicieiit to warrant the exercise of the 
power, if it was deemeJ prup.r to exerri.-L- it, eitlier to introduce or to keep 
out shivery outside the States, within the territories. 

Mr. President, I sliall not take up time, of which already so much lia.s 
been consumed, to show that, according to my sense of the Constitution of 
the United States, or rather according to the sense in which the clause has 
been interpreted for the last tifty years, the clause which confers on Con- 
gress the power to regulate the Territories and other property of the United 
States convt'vs the authority. 

Mr. President, with uiy "worthy friend from Michigan — and I use the 
term in the K-st and most eni}>hatic sense, for I believe he and I have 
known each other longer than he and I have known any other senator in 
this hall — I can not concur, although I entertain the most profound respect 
for the opinions he has advanced upon the subject, advei-se to ray own ; but 
I must sav, when a point is settled by all the elementary writers of our 
countiy, by all the departments of our Government, legislative, executive, 
and judicial — when it has been so settled for a ])eriod of fifty years, and 
nevci- was seriously disturbed until recently, that 1 think, if we are to re- 
gard any thing as' fixed and settled un<ler the administration of this Con- 
stitution of ours, it is a question which has thus been invariably and uni- 
foi-ndy settled in a jiarticular way. Or are we to come to this conclusion 
that nothing, nothing on earth is settled under this Constitution, but that 
every thing is unsettled ? 

Mr. President, we have to recollect it is very possible — sir, it is quite 
likolv__tliat when that Constitution was framed, the application of it to 
such" Territories as Louisiana, Florida, California, and New Mexico was never 
within the contemplation of its framers. It will be recollected that when 
that Constitution was framed the whole country northwest of the river 
Oiiio was unpe;)pled ; and it will be recollected also, that the exercise and 
the assertion of the power to make governments for Territories in their in- 
fant state, are, in the nature of the power, temporary, and to terminate 
whenever they have acquired a population competent for self-government. 
Sixty thousand is the number fixed by the ordinance of 1787. Now, sir, 
recollect that when this Constitution was adopted, and that Territory was 
unjie.ipled, is it possible that Congress, to whom it had been ceded by the 
States for the common l)enefit of the ceding State and all other members 
of the Union — is it possible that Congress had no riglit whatever to declare 
what description of settlers should occujiy the public lands? 

Suppose they took up the opinion that the introduction of slavery would 
enhance the value of the land, and enable them to command for the iniblic 
treasury a greater amount from that source of revenue than by the exclu- 
sion of slaves, would they not have had the right to say, in fixing the rules, 
regulations, or whatever you choose to call them, for the government of 
that Territorv, that any oiie that chooses to bring slaves may bring them, 
if it will enhance the "value of the property, in the clearing and cuhivation 
of the soil, and add to the importance of the country ? Or take the re- 
verse : — Suppose Congress had thought that a greater amount of revenue 
wonld be derived froiii the waste lands beyond the Ohio river by the inter- 
diction of slavery, would they not have had a right to interdict it i Wliy, sir, 
remember how these settlements were made, and what was their progress. 
Tliey began with a few. I believe that about Marietta the first settlement 
was made. 

It was a settlement of some two or three hundred persons from New 



COMPEOMISE RESOLUTIONS. 811 

Eni^'land. Cincinnati, I believe, Avas the next point where a settlement was 
made. Tt was settled perhaps hy a few persons froin New -Ti-rsey, or some 
other State. Did tliose tew settlers, the moment they arrived there, acquire 
sovereign rights ? Had those few persons power to dispose of these terri- 
tories? Had they even power to govern themselves — the handful of men 
who established themselves at Marietta or Cincinnati ? Xo, sir, the con- 
templation of the Constitution no doubt was, that, inasmuch as this power 
was temporary, as it is api)licable to unpeo])led territory, and as that territory 
will become peopled gradually, insensibly, until it reaches a population 
■which may entitle it to the benefit of self-government, in the mean time it 
is right and proper that Congress, who owns the soil, should regulate the 
settlement of the soil, and govern the settlers on the soil, until those settlers 
acquire number and capacity to govern themselves. 

Sir, I will not further dwell upon this part of the subject ; but I said there 
is another source of power equally satisfactory, equally conclusive in my 
mind, as that which relates to the territories, and that is the treaty-making 
power — the acquiring power. Now, I put it to gentlemen, is there not at 
this moment a power somewhere existing either to admit or exclude slavery 
from the ceded territory ? It is not an annihilated power. This is impos- 
sible. It is a subsisting, actual, existing power ; and where does it exist ? 
It existed, I presume no one will controvert, in Mexico prior to the cession 
of these territories. ]\Iexico could have abolished slavery or introduced 
slavery either in California or New Mexico. That must be conceded. Who 
•will controvert this position ? Well, Mexico has parted from the territory 
and from the sovereignty over the territory ; and to whom did she transfer 
it? She transferred the territory and the sovereignty of the territory to 
the Government of the United States. 

The Government of the United States acquires in sovereignty and in 
territory over California and New Mexico, all, either in sovereignty or terri- 
tory, that Mexico lield in Caliibrnia or New Mexico, by the cession of those 
territories. Sir, dispute that who can. The power exists or it does not; 
no one will contend for its annihilation. It existed in Mexico. No one, I 
think, can deny that. Mexico alienates the sovereignty over the territory, 
and lier alienee is the Government of the United States. The Government 
of the United States, then, possesses all power which Mexico possessed over 
the ceded territories, and the Government of the United States can do in 
reference to them — within, I admit, certain limits of the Constitution — 
whatever ^lexico could have done. There are prohibitions upon the jiower 
of Congress within tin; Constitution, which ]>n)hibiti(>ns, I admit, must ap- 
ply to Congress whenever she legislates, whether for the old States or for 
new territories ; but, within those prohibitions, the powers of the United 
States over the ceded territories are co-extensive and equal to the powers 
of Mexico in the ceded territories, prior to the cession. 

Sir, in regard to this treaty-making power, all who have any occasion to 
examine into its character and to the possible extent to which it may be 
carried, know that it is a power unlimited in its nature, except in so far as 
any limitation may be found in the Constitution of the United States; and 
upon this subject there is no limitation which prescribes the extent to which 
the powers should be exercised. I know, sir, it is argued that there is no 
grant of power in the Constitution, in specilic terms, over the subject of 
slavery any where ; and there is no grant in the Constitution to Congress 
specifically over the subject of a vast variety of matters upon which the 
powers of Congress may unquestionably operate. The major inclmles the 
minor. The general grant uf power comprehends all the particulars and 



312 SPEECH ON THE 

elements of which thai power consists. The power of acquisition by treaty- 
draws af.er it the power of c^overnineiit of the country acquired. 

If there be a power to acquire, there must be, to use the language of the 
trihiuial that sits below, a pcjwer to govern. I think, theiefore, sir, without, 
at least for the present, dwelling fuitheron this p;irt of the subject, that to 
the two sources of authority in Congress to whi^-li I have refe:re 1, and 
especiallv to the last, may be traced the power of Congress to aui in the 
territories in question ; and, sir, I go to the extent, and I think it is a ) ower 
in Congiess equal to the intioductioti or exclusion of slavery. I almit the 
argument in both its forms; I admit if the aigunient be maintaine 1 that 
the power exists to exclude slavery, it necessarily follows that the power 
must exist, if Congress choose to exercise it, to tolerate or introduce slaveiy 
within the territories. 

]5ut, sir, I have been drawn oflf so far from the second resolution — not 
from tlie object of it, but from a particular view of it — that it has almost 
gone out of my recollection. The resolution asserts — 

" That as slavery does not exist by law, and is not likely to be introduced 
iuto any of the territory acquired by the Unite .1 States from the Republic 
of M(^xico, it is inexpedient for Congress to provide by law either for its 
introduction into or exclusion from any pa: t of the said territory; and that 
appropriate territorial governments ought to be established by Congress in 
all of the said tei-ritory, not assigned as the boundaries of the proposed State 
of California, without the adop;ion of any restriction or condition on the 
subject of slavery." 

Tiie other truth which I respectfully and with great deference conceive 
to exist, and which is announced in this resolution, is, that slavery is not 
like'y to be introduced iuto any of these territoiies. Well, sir, is iiot that 
a fact? Is there a member who hears me that will not confi'm the tact? 
What has occurred within the last three months? In California, more 
than in any other portion of the ceded territniy, was it most prubable, 
if slavery was aiJa|ited to the interests of the industrial pursuits of the 
inhabitants, that slavery would have been introduced. Yet, wiihin the 
space of three or four months, Calif )rnia herself has declared, by a ur.ani- 
mous vole of her cnventron, against the introduction of slavery within her 
limits. And, as I remarked on a former occasion, this declaration was not 
conii;ied to iion-shiveholders. 

There were ])ersons from the slavehoiding States who concurred in that 
declaration. Thus this fact which is asserted in the resolution is responded 
to by the act of California. Then, sir, if we come down to those mountain 
regions which are to be found in New Mexico, the nature of its soil and 
country, its bairenness, its unprodm;tive character, every thing which relates 
to it, and every thing which we hear of it and about it, must necessarily 
lead to the conclusion which I have mentioned, that slavery is not likely to 
be introduced into them. — Well, sir, if it be true that by law slavery does 
not now exist in the ceded territories, and that it is not likely to be intro- 
duced in'o the ceded territories — if you, senators, agree to these tru'hs, or 
a majority of you, as I am peisuaded a large majority of you must ai^ree to 
them — where is the objection or the difficulty to your announcing them to 
the whole world ? Why should you hesitate or falter in the ])romulgation 
of incontestable truths? (>n the otlur hand, with n-gard to senators com- 
ing from the free States, allow me here to make, with reference to Cali- 
fornia, one or two observations. 

WIii'M this feiding within tlu' limits of your States was gotten up; when 
the Wihnot proviso was disseminated through them, and your people and 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIOXS. 313 

youi-selves attached tlieni'^clves to tlmt p-oviso, wliat was the s'a'e of facts? 
The state of facts at the time was, that you apim-henilcd the intioduction 
of slavery there. You iliil not know much— very few of us now know 
mu^li — .I'bout tlio^e ve y terri o:ies. They were far distant from you. You 
were apprehensive t'lat slavery miu'Iit be introduce! there. You waited as 
a protfc'ion to int'oduoc the iiitei'dictiou called the Wilmot proviso. It 
was in this sta'e of want of inf jrmation that the whole North Mazel up in 
behalf of this Wilmot p-oviso. It was under the ai>preheusion that slavery 
mig'it be iuMo luced theie (hrst you left your consrituents. For when you 
came from ho:ne, at the tim.' you left your respeciive residences, you did 
not know the fact, whiv-h has ciily reached us sin^^e the comineiicement of 
the session of Compress, that a constitution has been una'iim )usly adopted 
by the p 'Ople of U difo nia, excln lingf slavery from their Terri ory. 

' Well, now, let me supj)ose that two years ago it ha 1 bean known in tho 
free States that such a constitution would be adopted ; let ine suppose that 
it had be^n believed that in no other ponion of thesc^ coded territories would 
slaveiy be iatro'ucei; let me suppose that upon this great subject of solic- 
itude, negro slavery, the people of the North ha 1 been perfectly satisfied 
that there was no danger; let me also suppose that they had fuH'seen the 
excitement, the danger, the irrita'ion, the resolutions which have been 
adopted by Southern L-gisl-itures, and the manifestations of o|)inion by the 
people of the slaveholding States — let me suppose that all this had been 
known at the North at the time when the agiration was first got up upon 
the subject of this Wilmot proviso — lIo you believe that it would have ever 
reached the height to which it has attained I Do any of you believe it? 
And if, prior to your departure from your respective homes, you had had 
an opportunity of conferring with your constituents upon this most leading 
an<l important fact — of the adoption of a constitution excluding slavery in 
California — do you not believe, senators and representatives coming from 
the free States, that if you had the advantage of that fact told in se ions, 
calm, fire-side conversation with your constituents, they would not have 
told you to come here and to settle all these agitating questions without 
danirer to this Union ? 

What do you want ? What do you want who reside in the free States? 
You want that there shall be no slavery introduced into the teiritones ac- 
quire 1 from Mexico. Well, have not you got it in California already, if 
admitted as a State ? Have not you got it in New Mexico, in all human 
probability, also ? What more do you want ? You have got what is worth 
a thousand Wilmot proyisos. You hiive got nature itself on your side. 
You have the f;ict itself on your side. You have the truth stating you in 
the face that no slavery is existing there. Well, if you are men ; if you can 
rise from the mud and slough of party struggles and elevate yourselves to 
the height of patriots, what will you do? You will look at the fact as it 
exists. You will say, this fact w;is unknown to my people. You will say, 
they acted on one set of facts, we have got another set of facts here intiu- 
encing us, and we will act as jiaMiots. <as responsible men, as lovers of unity 
and above all of this Union. We will a.-t on the altered set of facts un 
known to our constituents, and we will appeal to their justice, their honor, 
their magnanimity, to concur with us on this occasion, for establishing 
concord "and harmony, and maintaining the existence of this glorious 
Union. 

Well, Mr. President, I think, entertaining these views, that there was 
nothing extravagant in the hope in wliich I indulged when these resolu- 
tions were prepared and otfered — nothing extravagant in the hope that the 



Q 



14 SPEECH OX THE 



North miiyht content itself even with striking out as unnecessary these two 
declarations. Thev are unnecessary for any purpose the free States have 
in view. At all events, if they should insist upon Congress expressing the 
opinions which are here asserted, they should limit their wishes to the sim- 
ple assertion of them, without insisting on their being incorporated in any 
terntonal Government which Congiess may establish in the tenitories. 

I pass on from the second resolution to the third and fourth, which relate 
to Texas : and allow me to say, Mr. President, that I approach the subject 
with a full knowledge of all its difficulties; and of all the questions con- 
necte'l with or growing out of this institution of slavery, which Congress 
is called upon to pass upon and decide, there are none so difficult and 
troublesome as those which relate to Texas, because, sir, Texas h.xs a ques- 
tion of boundary to settle, and the question of slavery, or the feelings con- 
nected with it, run into the question of boundary. The North, perhaps, 
will be anxious to contract Texas within the narrowest possible limit's, in 
order to exclude all beyond her to make it a free territory; the South, on 
the contrary, may be anxious to extend those sources of Rio Grande, for 
the purpose of creating an additional theater for slavery; and thus, to the 
question of the limits of Texas, and the settlement of her boundary, the 
slavery question, with all its troubles and difficulties, is added, meeting us 
at every stej) we take. 

There is, sir, a third question, also, adding to the difficulty. By the resolu- 
tion of annexation, slavery was interdicted in all north of 3G^ 30'; but of 
New Mexico, that portion of it which lies north of 36^ 30' embraces, I think, 
about one third of the whole of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande ; so 
that vou have free and slave territory mixed, boundary and slavery mixed 
together, and all these difficulties are to be encountered. And allow me 
to say, sir, that among the considerations ^Yhich induced me to think it 
was ner-essarv to settle all these question^ was the state of things that now 
exists in New Mexico, and the state of things to be apprehended both there 
and in other portions of the territories. Why, sir, at this moment — and T 
think I shall have the concurrence of the two senators from that State when 
I announce the fact — at this moment there is a feeling ajjproximating to 
ablKjrreiice on the part of the people of New Mexico at the idea of any 
union with Texas. 

Mk. Ki.sK. Only, sir, on the part of the office-seekers and army followers, 
who have settled there, and attempted to niislead the people. 

Mr. Clay. Ah ! sir, that may be, and I am afraid that New Mexico 
is not the onlv place where this class composes a majority of the whole 
population of the country. — [Laughter.] 

Now, sir, if the questions are not settled which relate to Texas, her 
boundaries, and so forth, and to the territory now claimed by Texas and 
disputed bv New Mexico — the territories beyond New Mexico which are 
excluded from California — if these questions are not all settled, I think 
tliey will give nse to future confusion, disorder and anarchy there, and to 
agitation here. There will be, I have no doubt, a j)arty still at the North 
crying out, if these questions are not settled this session, for the A\ ilmot 
])roviso, or some other restriction upon them, and we shall absolutely do 
nothing, in my 0])inion, if we do not accommodate all these difficulties and 
provide against tlie recurrence of all these dan!:;;evs. 

Sir, with respect to the state of things in New Mexico, allow me to call 
the attention of the Senate to what I consider as the highest authority I 
could olfer to lliem as to the state of things there existing. I mean the 
act^ of their Ojuveution, unless that Convention haj)pens to have been com- 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 315 

posed altogetlier of office-seekers, office-lioldors, and so forih. Now, sir, 
I call vouv attention to what they say in depiclin^- their own situation. 

Mr." Undeuwood, at Mu. Cl.vy's request, read tlie tullowinir extract from 
instructions adopted by the Convention, appended to the journal of the Con- 
vention of the Territory of New Mexico, held at the city of Santa Fc', in 
September, 1849. 

" We, the people of New Mexico, in Convention assembled, having- elected 
a delejjate to represent this Territory in the Congress of the United States, 
and ti) urge upon the Supreme Government a redi-ess of our grievances, 
and the protection due to us as citizens of our common country, under the 
Constitution, instruct him as follows: That whereas, for the last three 
years we have suffered under the paralyzing effects of a government un- 
defined and doubtful in its character, inefficient to protect the rights of the 
people, or to discharge the high and absolute duty of every Government, 
the enforcement andregular administration of its own laws, in consequence 
of which, industry and entei-prise are paralyzed and discontent and con- 
fusion ])revail throughout the land. The want of proper protection against 
the various barbarous tribes of Indians that surround us on every side ha.s 
prevented the extension of settlements upon our valuable ])ublic domain, 
and rendered utterly futile every attempt to explore or develop the great 
resources of the territory. 

" Surrounded by the Utahs, Camanches, and Apaches, on the North, 
East and South, by the Navajos on tlie West, with Jicarillas within our 
limits, and without any adequate protection against their hostile inroads, 
our flocks and hei'ds are driven off by thousands, our fellow-ciizens, men, 
women, and children, are murdered or carried into captivity. Many of our 
citizens, of all ages and sexes, are at this moment sultering all tlie horrors 
of barbarian bondage, and it is utterly out of our power to obtain their 
release from a condition to which death would be preferable. The wealth 
of our territory is being diminished. We have neither the means nor any 
adopted plan of Government for the education of the rising generation. 
In fine, with a government tempoiary, doubtful, uncertain, and ineflicient 
in character and in operation, surrounded and despoiled by barbarous foes, 
ruin ajij^ears inevitably before us, unless speedy and effectual protection be 
extended to us by the' Congress of the United States." 

There is a series of resofutions, Mr. Piesi lent, which any gentleman may 
look at, if he chooses ; but I think it is not worth while to take up the 
time of the Senate in reading them. 

That is the condition, sir, of New Mexico. W\dl, I suspect that to go 
beyond it, to go beyond the Rio Grande to the territory which is not 
claimed by Texas, you will not find a much better state of things. In fact, 
sir, I can "not for a moment reconcile it to my sense of duty to sutler Con- 
gress to adjourn without an efibrt, at le-;st, being made to extend the 
benefits, the blessings of government to those people who have recently 
been acquired by us. 

Sir, with reirard to that portion of New Mexico which lies east of the 
Rio Grande, undoub'edly, if it is conceded to Texas, while she has two 
parties, disliking each other as much as those office-holders and office- 
seekers' alluded^'^to by the senator from Texas, if they could possibly be 
drawn too-ether and governed quietly, peaceably, and comfortably, there 
might be a remedv, so far as relates to the country east of the Rio Grande; 
but all beyond it^ — Deseret and the North of California — would be still 
open and liable to all the consequences of disunion, contusion and anarchy, 
without some stable government emanating from the authority of the nation 



316 SPEECH ON THE 

of which they now compose a part, and with wliich they are but little 
aequaiiit-'d. I ihiuk, therefore, that all these questior:s. difficult and trouble- 
some as they may be, ought to be met — met iu a spirit of can Jor and calm- 
ness, and decided upon as a matter of duty. 

Now, these two resolutions which we have immediately under considera- 
tion propose a decision of these queslions, I have said, sir, that there is 
scarcely a resolution in the seiies which I have otFered that does not con- 
fcun some nmtua! concession or evidence of mutual forbearance, where the 
concession was not altocfether from the non-slaveholdiuix to the slavehold- 
ing States. 

Now, with respect to this resolution proposing a boundary for Texas, 
what is it ? We know the ditl'erence of opinion which li;;s existed in this 
country with resjject to that boundary. We know that a very laro-e por- 
tion of t'le people of the United States have supposed that the western 
limit of Texas was the Nueces, and that it did not extend to the Rio 
GraniJe. We know, by the resolution of annexation, that the question of 
what is the western limit and the northern limit of Texas was an open 
question — :hat it has been all along an open question. It was an open 
ques ion wh'U the boun 'ary was lun, in virtue of the Act of 1838, m:irking 
the boundary between the United States and Texas. Sir, at that lime the 
boundary autho;ized by the Act of 1838 was a boundary commencing at 
the mouth of the Sabine an 1 running up to its head, thence to Red River, 
thence westwardiy with Red River to, I think, the hundred:h degree of west 
longitude. Well, sir, tliat did not go so far as Tex:is now claims, and why ? 
Because it was an open question. AVar was yet raging between Texas and 
Mexico ; it was not foreseen exactly what might be her ultimate limits. 
But, sir, we will come to tlie question of what was done at tlie time of her 
annexation. 

Tile wliole resolution which relates to the question of boundary, from 
beginning to end, assumes an open boundary, an unascertained, unfixed 
boundaiy to Texjis on the West. Sir, what is the first part of the resolu- 
tion ? It is that "Congress doth consent that the Territory properly in- 
cluded within and rightfully belonging to the Repu!>lic of Tex.is may be 
erecie I isiio a new State." Properly including — rightfully belonging to. 
The resoluMon specifies no boundary. It could specify none. It has spe- 
cified no wes!ern or northern boundary for Texas. Ir has assumed in this 
state of uncertain'y what we know in point of fact existed. Bui thi'U tlie 
latter p-irt of it : "Said State to be formed subject to the adjustment of all 
quest'ous of bounlary that may arise with other Governments, and the 
cons iiution thereof," &c. That is to say, she is annexed wi:h her riglitful 
and prop.'r b.)U!idaries, without a specification of them ; but inasmuch as 
it wa; known that these boundaries at the west and the north were unset- 
tle 1, the <;overnmont of the Unite 1 Sates retained to itself the power of 
settli:ig witli any foreign nation what the boundary tihould be. 

Now, si'/, it is impossible for me to go into the whole question and to 
arLTUc it fnllv. I mean to express ojnnions or impression^ rather th:in to 
go iiiN) the entire argument. The western aiid northern limit of Texas 
being nn>e lied, and tlie Government of ihe Unite<l States having retained 
the power of settling it, I ask, suppose the power ha I been exerciseil, and 
that tluMV h;id been no cession of t«'rritory by Mexico to the Uinted States, 
but tliaf the negotiations be'ween the countries had iieen limited simply to 
the fixa'.ion of the western and northern limits of Texa.s, could it not have 
bi'fU tlone by the United Slates and Mexico conjointly ? Will any one 
dispute it ? Suppose there had been a treaty of limits of Texas concluded 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 317 

between Mexico and the United States, fixinir the Nueces as the western 
limit of Texas, would not Texas have been bound by it? Why, by tho 
express terms of tho resokition she would have been bound l)y it ; or if it 
had been the Colorado or the Kio (Jraiide, or any other boundary, what- 
ever western limit had been Hxetl by the joint action of the two powers, 
would have \n'vn bindiuLf and obliy^atory upon Texas by the express terms 
of the resolution by whidi she was adniitied into the Union. Now, sir, 
Mexico and the United States conjointly, by treaty, might have fixed upon 
the western and noithern limits of Texas, and if the United States have 
acquired by treaty all the subjects upon which the limits of Texas miL>-ht 
have opeiated, have not the United States now the power solely and exclu- 
sively which Mexico and the United States conjointly possessed ju'ior to the 
late treaty between the two countries ? It seems to nie, sir, that this con- 
clusion and reasoning are ])erfectly irresistilile. If Mexico and the United 
States could have fixed upon aiiv western liinll for Texas, and did not do 
it, and if the United States have acquired to themselves, or ac(piired by 
the treaty in question, all the territory upon which the western limit must, 
have been fixed, when it was fixed, it seems to me that no one can resist 
the logical conclusion, that the United States now have themselves a power 
to do what the United States and Mexico conjointly could have done. 

Sir, I admit it is a delicate power — an extremely delicate jiower. I ad- 
mit that it ought to be exercised in a spirit of justice, liberality, and gener- 
ositv toward this the youngest member of the groat American family. But 
here the }iower is. Possibly, sir, upon that question — however I ofier no 
positive opinion — possibly, if the United States were to fix it in a way un- 
just in the opinion of Texas, and contrary to her tights, she might bring 
the question before the Supreme Court of the United States, and have it 
there again investigated and decided. I say possibly, sir, because I am not 
one of that class of politicians who believe that every question is a com- 
petent and proper question for the Supreme Court of the United States. 
There are questions too large for any tribunal of that kind to try ; great 
political questions, national territorial questions, which transcend their 
limits ; for such questions their powers are utterly incompetent. Whether 
this be one of those questions or not, I shall not decide ; but I will uKjin- 
tain that the United States are now invested solely and exclusively with 
that power which was common to both nations — to fix, ascertain, and set- 
tle the western and northern limits of Texas. 

Sir, the other day my honorable friend who represents so well the State 
of Texas said that we had no more right to touch the limits of Texas than 
we had to touch the limits of Kentucky. I think that was the illustration' 
he gave us — that a State is one and indivisible, and that the General (Gov- 
ernment has no right to sever it. I agree with him, sir, in that ; where 
the limits are ascertained and certain, where they are undisputed and in- 
disputable. The General Government has no right, nor has any other 
earthly power the right, to interfere with the limits of a State whose 
boundaries are thus fixed, thus ascertained, known, and recognized. The 
whole power, at least, to interfere with it is volimtary. The extreme case 
may be put — one which I trust in God may never happen in this nation — 
of a conquered nation, and of a constitution adapting itself to the state of 
subjugation or conquest to which it has boon roducod ; and giving up whole 
States, as well as parts of States, in order to save iVom the con(^ueiing aims 
of the invader what remains. I say such a power in case of extremity may 
exist. But I admit that, short of such extremity, voluntarily, the General 
Government has no right to separate a State — to take a portion of its ter- 



318 SPEECH ON THE 

ritory from it, or to regard it otherwise than as integral, one and indivisi- 
ble, and not to be affected by any legislation of ours. But, then, I assume 
what does not exist in the case of Texas, and these boundaries must be 
known, ascertained, and indisputable. With regard to Texas, all was open, 
all was unfixed ; all is unfixed at this moment, with respect to her limits 
west and north of the Xneces. 

But, sir, we gave fifteen millions of dollars for this territory that we 
bought, and God knows what a costly bargain to this now distracted coun- 
try it has been ! We gave fifteen millions of dollars for the territory ceded 
to us by Mexico. Can Texas justly, fairly, and honorably coine into the 
Union and claim all that she asserted a right to, without paying any por- 
tion of the fifteen millions of dollars which constituted the consideration 
of the grant by the ceding nation to the United States ? She proposes no 
such thing. She talks, indeed, about the United States haNnng been her 
agent, her trustee. Why, sir, the United States was no more her agent or 
her trustee than she was the agent or trustee of the whole peoj^le of the 
United States. Texas involved herself in war — (I mean to make this no 
reproach — none — none — upon the past) — Texas brought herself into a state 
of war, and when she got into that war, it was not the war of Texas and 
Mexico, but it was the war of the whole thirty United States and Mexico ; 
it was a war in which the Government of the United States, which created 
the hostilities, was as much the trustee and agent of the twenty-nine other 
States comjiosing the Union as she was the trustee and agent of Texas. 
And, sir, with respect to all these circumstances — such, for example, as a 
treaty with a map annexed, as in the case of the recent treaty with Mexico ; 
such as the opinion of indinduals highly respected and eminent, like the 
lamented Mr. Polk, late President of tiie United States, whose opinion was 
that he had no right, as President of the United States, or in any character 
otherwise than as nesfotiatinof with Mexico — and in that the Senate would 
have to act in concurrence with him — that he had no right to fix the 
boundary; and as to the map attacheil to the treaty, it is sutfieient to say 
that the treaty itself is silent from beginning to end on the subject of the 
fixation of the boundary of Texas. The annexation of the map to the 
treaty was a matter of no utility, for the treaty is not strengthened by it ; 
it no more aflSrins the truth of any thing delineated upon the map in rela- 
tion to Texas than it does any thing in relation to any other geographical 
subject that composed the map. 

Mr. President, I have said that I think the power has been concentrated 
in the Government of the United States to fix upon the limits of the State 
of Texas. I have said also that this power ought to be exercised in a sjiirit 
of great liberality and justice ; and 1 put it to you, sir, to say, iu reference 
to this second resolution of mine, whether that liberality and justice have 
not been displayed in the resolution which I have proposed. In the reso- 
lution, wiiat is proposed ? To confine her to the Nueces ? No, sir. To 
extend her boundary to the mouth of the Kio Grande, and thence up that 
river to the southern limit of New Mexico; and thence along that limit to 
the boundary between the United States anil Spain, as marked under the 
treaty of 1819. 

AN'liy, sir, here is a vast countrj*. I believe — although I have made no 
estimate al)out it — that it is not inferior in extent of laml, of acres, of 
square miles, to what Texivs east of the river Nueces, extending to the Sa- 
bine, had before. And who is there can say with truth and justice that 
there is no reciprocity, nor mutuality, no concession in lliis resolution, 
made to Texas, even in reference to the question of boundary alone ? You 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. ul9 

give her a vast country, equal, I repeat, in extent nearly to what she indis- 
putably possessed before ; a country sufliciently lari^^o, -with her consent, 
hereafter to carve out of it some two or throe additional States when the 
condition of the population may render it expedient to make new States. 
Sir, is there not in this resolution concession, liberality, justice ? But this 
is not all that we proposi- to do. Tlie second re-nhition proposes to pay 
otr a cert;iin amount of t!ie debt of Texas. A blank is left in the resolu- 
tion, because I have not heretofore been able to ascertain the amount. 

Mr. FooTE — Will the honorable Senator allow me to sui^t^est that it may 
be agreeable to him to finish his remarks to-morrow ? If such be the case, 
I will move that the Senate now go into Executive session. 

Mr. Clay — I am obliged to the worthy Senator from Mississipjii ; I do 
not think it possible for me to conclude to-day, and I will yield with great 
pleasure if — 

Mr. FooTE — I now move — 

Mr. Clav — If the Senator will permit me to coiichnle what I have to 
say in relation to Texas, I will then cheerfully yield the floor for his mo- 
tion. 

I was about t(^ remark that, independently of this most liberal and gen- 
erous boundary which is tendered to Texas, we propose to oti'er her in this 
second resolution a sum which the worthy Senator from Texas thinks will 
not be less than three millions of dollars — the exact amount neither he nor 
I can furnish, not having the materials at hand u])on Avhich to make a 
statement. Well, sir, you get this large boundary and three millions of 
your debt paid. I shall not repeat the argument which I urged upon a 
former occasion, as to the obligation of the United States to pay a portion 
of this debt, but was struck the other day, upon reading the treaty of 
limits, first between the United States ami Mexico, and next the treaty of 
limits between the United States and Tcxa^, to find, in the preamble of both 
those treaties, a direct recognition of the principle from wdiich I think 
springs our obligation to pay a portion of this debt, for the payment of 
which the revenue of Texas was pledged before her annexation. The 
principle asserted in the treaty of limits with Mexico is, that whereas liy 
the treaty of 1819, between Spain and the United States, a limit was fixed 
between Mexico and the United States, Mexico comprising then a portion 
of the possessions of the Spanish Government, although Mexico was at the 
date of the treaty severed from the crown of S[)ain, yet she, as ha\ ing been 
a part of the possessions of the crown of Spain when the treaty of "i819 
was made, was bound by that treaty as 'much as if it had been made by 
herself instead of Spain — in other words, that the severance of no part of 
a common empire can exonerate either portion of that empire from the 
obligations contracted when the empire was entire and unsevered. And, 
sir, the same ]>rinciple is asserted in the treaty of 1838, between Texas 
and the United States. The principle asserted is, that the treaty of 1828 
between Mexico and the United States having been made when Texas was 
a part of Mexico, and that now Ti!xas ln-ing dissi'vered from Mexi(-o, she 
nevertheless remains bouml by that tre;ity as nuich as if no such severance 
had taken place. In other words, the principle is this — that when an in- 
dependent power ci'cates an obligation or debt, no subsequent political mis- 
fortune, no subsequent severance of the territories of that power, can exon- 
erate it from the obligation that was created while an integral and in<le- 
pendent power ; in other words, to bring it down and apply it to this s[iecific 
case- — that, Texas being an iniiep(Midcnt power, and having a riiflit to m:dce 
loans and to make pledges, having raise I a loan and pledged specilii-Mlly 



01:0 SPEECH ON THE 

the revenues arising from tlie customs to tlie imMic credi'or, tlio ].iil)lic 
cro litor became invested with a right to that fund ; and it is a riijlit of 
wliich he could not be divested by any other act than one to which h-s own 
consent was given — it could be divested by no political change wliich Texas 
might think pvoiicr to make. In consequence of the absorption or merg- 
ing of Texas into the United States, the creditor, being no p:ir;y ;o the 
treaty which was formed, does not lose his right — he retains his right to . 
demand the fulfillment of the pledge that was made upon this specific fund, 
just as if there had not been any annexation of Texjis to the United 
States. 

That was the foundation upon which I arrived at the conclusio;i ex- 
pressed in the resolution — that the United States having appropriated to 
themselves the revenue arising from the imports, which revenue had been 
pledged to the creditor of Texas, the United States as an honorable and 
just power ought now to pay the debt for which those duties were solemnly 
pledged by a power independent in itself, and competent to m:ike the 
pledge. Well, sir, I think that when you consider the large boundary 
-which is assigned to Texas — and when you take into view the ;ibhoi'rence, 
forlthiidclam warranted in using this expression — with which the people 
of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande will look upon any political con- 
nection with Texas — and when, in addition to this, you take into view the 
large grant of money that we propose to make, and our liberality in exon- 
erating her fiom a portion of her public debt, equal to that grant — when 
we taice all these circumstances into consideration, I think I have presented 
a case in regard to which I confess I shall be greatly surprised if the peo- 
ple of Texas themselves, when they come to deliberate upon these liberal 
otiers, hesitate a moment to accede to them. 

I have now got through with what I had to say in reference to this reso- 
lution, and if the Senator from Mississippi wishes it, I will give way for a 
motion for adjournment. 

On motion of Mr. Foote the further consideration of the resolution was 
postj^oned, and on motion, 

The Senate adjourned. 

"Wednesday, Feb. 6, 

Mr. Clay — ^Ir. President, if there be in this vast assembly of beauty, 
grace, elegance, and intelligence, any who have come here under an expect- 
ation that the humble individual who now addresses you means to attempt 
any disjjlay, any use of ambitious language, any extraordinary ornament or 
decoration of sjieech, they vrill lie utterly disappointed. The season of the 
year, and my own season of iife, both admonish me to abstain from the use 
of any such ornaments ; but, above all, Mr. President, the awful subject 
upon which it is my duty to address the Senate and the country forbids my 
saying anything but what pertains strictly to that subject, and my sole de- 
sire is to make myself, in seriousness, soberness, and plainness, understood 
by you and by those who think proper to listen to me. 

" When, yesterday, the adjournment of the Senate took place, at that stage 
of the di-^cussion of the resolutions which I had submitted which related to 
Texas and her boundary, I thought I had concluded the whole subject, but 
I was rcmimled by a friend that perhaps I was not sufficiently explicit on a 
single point, and that is, the relation of Texas and the Government of the 
United States, and that portion of the debt of Texas for which I think a 
rispoiisibility exists on the part of the Government of the United States. 

Sir, it was said that perhaps it might be understood, in regard to the 
proposed grant of three miUious, or whatever may be the sum when ascer- 



I 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 321 

tained, to Toxas, ia coiii^kleratiou of the surrender of her title to New 
Mexico this side of the Rio Grande, that we j^ranted notlnno- — that wo 
merely di-scharfjod an obhiralion which existed upon the Goveinineut.of the 
United States, in conse(juence of the appropriation of the imports receiva- 
ble in tlie ports of Texas while she was an independent power. But that 
is not my understandinif, Mr. President. As between Texas and the United 
States, the obligation on the part of Texas to pay her portion of the debt 
referred to, is complete and unqualified, ami there is, as between these two 
parties, no obligation on the part of the United States to pay one dollar of 
the debt of Texas. On the contrary, by an express stipulation in the reso- 
lutions of admission, it is declared and provided that in no event do the 
United States become liable or charged with any portion of the debt or 
liabilities of Texas. 

It is not, therefore, for any responsibility which exists to the State of 
Texas, on the part of the Government of the United States, that I think 
provision ought to be made for that debt. No such thing. As between 
those two parties, the responsibility on the part of Texas is coni]»lete to pay 
the debt, and there is no responsibility on the part of the United States to 
pay one cent. But there is a third party, who was no party to the annex- 
ation whatever — that is to say, the creditor of Texas, who ailvanced the 
money on the fidth of solemn pledges made by Texas to him, to reimburse 
the loan by the appropriation of the duties received on foreign impoi-ts; 
and he, and ho alone, is the party to whom we are bound, according to the 
view which I have presented of the subject. Nor can the other creditors 
of Texas complain that provision is maile only for a particular jvjrtion of 
the debt, leaving the residue of the debt unprovided for by the Government 
of the United States, because, in so far as we may extinguish anv portion 
of the debt of Texas under which she is now bound, in so far will it con- 
tribute to diminish the residue of the debts of Texas, and leave the funds 
derived from the public lands held by Texas, and what other resources she 
may have, applicable to the payment of these debts, with more effect than 
if the entire debt, including the pledged portion as well as the unpledged 
portion, was obligatory upon her, and she stood bound by it. Nor can the 
creditors complain, for another reason. 

Texas has all the resources which she had when an independent power, 
with the exception of the duties receivable in her ports upon foreign im- 
ports, and she is exempted from certain charges, expenditures, and respons- 
ibilities which she would have had to encounter if she had remained a 
separate and independent power : for example, she would have had to pro- 
vide for a certain amount of naval force and for a certain amount perhaps 
of military force, in order to protect herself against Mexico or against any 
foreign enemy whatever. But by her annexation to the United States she 
became liberated from all these charges, and, of course, her entire revenues 
may be applicable to the payment of her debts, tliose only excej)te 1 which 
are necessary to tlie support and maintenance of the Go\ernment of 
Texas. 

With this explanation upon that part of the subject, I pass to the con- 
sideration of the next resolution in the series which I have had the honor 
to submit, and which relates, if I am not mistaken, to this District. 

'■'■Resolved^ That it is inexpclient to abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia, wliile that institution continues to exist in the State of Mary- 
land, without the consent of that State, without the consent of the people 
of the District, and without just compensation to the owners of slaves 
within the District." 

21 



322 SPEECH ON THE 

Mr. Pre^^ident, an objection at the moment was made to this resolution, 
by some honorable senator on the other side of the body, that it did not 
conta'tfi an assertion of the unconstitutionality of the exercise of the power 
of abolition. I said then, as I have uniforndy maintained in this body, a.s 
I contiMidf 1 for in 18-38, and ever liave done, that the power to abolish 
slavery within the District of Columbia has been vested in Con^^ress by 
lanL,niai;-e too clear and explicit to admit, in my judijment, of any rational 
doubt whatever. What, sir, is the lungiiai^f of the Constitution? "To 
exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not 
exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and the 
acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the United 
States." Now, sir. Congress, by this grant of power, is invested with all 
legislation whatsoever over the District. 

Can we conceive of human language more broad and comprehensive 
than that which invests a legislative body with exclusive power, in all 
cases whatsoever, of legislation over a given district of territory or country ? 
Let me ask, sir, is thfre any power to abolish slavery in this District ? 
Let me suppose, in adtlition to what I suggested the other day, that slavery 
had been abolished in Maryland and Virginia — let me add to it the su]ipo- 
sition that it was abolished in all the States in the Union ; is there any 
power then to abolish slavery within the district of Columbia, or is slavery 
plantc(l here to all eternity, without the possibility of the exercise of any 
legislative power for its abolition ? It can not be invested in Maryland, 
be(;ausc the power with which Congress is invested is exclusive. ^lary- 
land, therefore, is excluded, and so all the other States of the U'uion are 
excluded. It is here, or it is nowhere. 

This was the view which T took in 1838, and I think there is nothing 
in the resolution which I olfered on that occasion incompatible with the 
view which I now present, and which the resolution contains. "While I 
admitted the power to exist in Congress, and exclusively in Congress, to 
legislate in all cases whatsoever, an<l consequently in the case of the abo- 
lition of slavery in this District, if it is deemed proper to do so, I admitted 
on that occasion, as I contend now, that it is a power which Congress can 
not, in conscience and good faith, exercise while the institution of slavery 
continues within the State of Maryland. The case, sir, is a good deal al- 
tered now from what it was twelve years ago, when the resolution to 
whi(di I allude was adopted by the Senate. 

Upon that occasion Virginia and Maryland both were concerned in the 
exercise of the power ; but, by the retrocession of that ]>ortion of the 
District wdiich lies south <>f the Potomac, Virginia became no more inter- 
est<Hl in the (|uestion of the abolition of slavery within the residue of the 
District than any other slaveholding State in tiie Union is interested in its 
abolition. The question now is confined to Maryland. I said on that oc- 
cjision that, althouL,di the grant of power is complete, and comprehends 
the right to abolish slavery within the District, yet it was a thing wiiich 
never could have entered into the conception of Maryland or Virginia that 
slavery would be abolished here while slavery continued to exist in either 
of those two ceding States. I say, moreover, wh.at the grant of power 
itself indicates, that, although exclusive lee-islation in all cases whatsoever 
over 'die District was vested in Ct>ngress within the ten miles square, it 
wjis to make it \ho seat of (Jovermncnt of the United States. That was 
the great, prominent, substantial object of the grant, and that, in exercising 
all the powers with which we are invested, complete and full as they may 
be, yet the great purpose — that of the cession having been made in order 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 323 

to create a suitalile seat of Govornmont — ouofht to be the leadinsf find con- 

• • • ^ 

trollinof idea with Congress in tlie exercise ot this power. 

And it is not necessary, in order to render it a proper and suitable seat 
of ("JovcrniiK'nt for the United States, tliat slavery should be abolished 
within the limits of the ten miles square. And in;i.snuich as at the time 
of the cession — when, in a spirit of generosity, immediately after the form- 
ation of the Constitution — when all was peace, and harnionv, and concord — 
when brotherly attection and fraternal feeling prevailed throughout this whole 
Union — when Maryland and Virginia, in a moment of generous impulse, 
and with feelings of higli regard toward the members of this Union, chose 
to make this grant, neither party could have si]spect<'d that, at some dis- 
tant future })eriod, upon the agitation of this unfortunate subject, their 
generous grant without equivalent was to be turned against them, and 
that the sword was to l)e uplifted, as it were, in their bosoms, to strike at 
their own hearts ; thus this implied faith, this honorable obligation, this 
necessity and propriety of keeping in constant view the great object of 
cession. Those were considerations which in 1838 governed me, as they 
now influen'^e me, in submitting the reasons which I have submitted to 
vour consideration. 

Now, as then, I do not think Congress ought ever, as an honorable 
body, acting bona fide, in good faith, and according to the nature and 
purposes, and objects of the cession, at the time it was made — and, look- 
ing at the condition of the ceding States at that time, Congress can not, 
without the forfeiture of all those obligations of honor which men of honor 
and nations of honor res})ect as much as if found literally in so many 
words in the bond itself — Congress can not interfere with the institution 
of slavery in this District without the violation of all these obligations, not 
in my 0]>inion less sacred and less binding than if inserted in the constitu- 
tional instrument itself. 

Well, sir, what does the resolution propose ? The resolution neither 
affirms nor disaffirms the constitutionality of the exercise of the power of 
abolition in this District. It is silent upon the subject. It says it is 
inexpedient to do it, but upon certain conditions. And what are these con- 
siilerations ? Why, first, that the State of Maryland shall give its consent; 
in other words, that the State of Maryland shall release the United States 
from the obligation of the implied faith Avhich I contend is connected with 
the act of cession by Maryland to the United States. Well, sir, if Mary- 
land, the only State now that ceded any portion of the territorv which re- 
mains to us, gives us her full consent ; in other words, if she releases Con- 
gress from all obligations growing out of the cession, with regard to slavery, 
I consider it is removing one of the obstacles to the exercise of the power, 
if it were deemed expedient to exercise tlie power. But it is removing 
only one of them. There are two other conditions which are inserted 
in this resolution. The first is the consent of the people of the District 

Mr. President, the condition of the people of this District is anomalous. 
It is a condition in violation of the great principles which lie at the bot- 
tom of our own free institutions, and all free institutions, because it is the 
case of a ]j<'ople who are acted upon by legislative authority, and taxed 
by legislative authority, without having any voice or representation in the 
taxing or legislative body. The Government of the United States, in re- 
spect to tlie people of this DIstrir-t, is a tyranny, an absolute Govern- 
ment — not exorcised hitherto, I admit, and I hope it never will be exercised, 
tyrannically or arbitrarily ; but it is in the nature of all arbitrary power, 
because, if I were to give a definition of arbitrary power, I would say that 



324 SPEECH ON THE 

it is that power which is exercised by aii authority over any people wlio 
have no voice, no representation in the assembly whose edicts or laws go 
forth to act upon the unrepresented people to whom I have referred. 

Well, sir, tliat beini; their condition, and this question of the abolition 
of slavery aff.-cting tliem in all the relations which we can imajjine — of 
prosperitv, society, comfort, peace, and happiness — I have required as an- 
other condition, uiion which alone this power should be exercised, the con- 
sent of the peojtk' of the District. But, sir, I have not stopped there. 
This resolution requires still another and a third condition, and that is, 
that slaveiy sliall not be abolished within the District of Columbia, althouo;h 
Marvland consents, although the people of the District themselves consent, 
without tlie third condition of making compensation to the owners of the 
slaves within the District. Sir, it is immaterial to me upon what basis 
this obligation to compensate for the slaves who may be liberated by the 
authority of Congress is placed. There is a clause in the Constitution of 
the United States, of the amendments to the Constitution, which declares 
that no private property shall be taken for public use, without just com- 
pensation being made to the owner of the property. 

Well, I think, in a just and liberal interpretation of that clause, we are 
restrained from taking the property of the jieople of this District, in slaves, 
on considerations of any public policy, or for any conceivable or imagina- 
ble use of the public, without a full and fair compensation to the people 
of this District. But, without the obligation of any constitutional restric- 
tion, such as is contained in tlie amendment to which I refer — wirhout 
that, upon the princiiiles of eternal justice itself, we ought not to deprive 
those who have property in slaves, in this District, of their property, with- 
out compensating them for their full value. Why, sir, no one of the Euro- 
pean powers, Great Britain, France, or any other of the powers which 
undertook to abolish slavery in their respective colonies, has ever ventured 
to do it Avithout making compensation. They were under no obligation 
arising out of any written or other constitution to do it, but under that 
oblijiMtion to which all men outrht to bow with homage — that obligation 
of eternal justice, which declares that no man ought to be deprived of his 
pro]iertv without a full and just compensation for its value. 

1 know it has been argued that the clause of the Constitution Avhich re- 
quires compensation for property taken by the public, for its use, would 
not apply to the case of the abolition of slavery in the District, because 
the property is not taken for the use of the public. Literally, perhaps, it 
would not be taken for the use of the public ; but it would be taken in 
consideration of a jiolicy and i)urjiose adopted by the public, as one which 
it was deemed expedient to carry into full etlect and operation ; and, by a 
liberal interpretation of the clause, it ought to be so far regarded as taken 
for the use of the public, at the instance of the public, as to demand com- 
pensation to tlie extent of the value of the property. 

If that is not a restriction as to the power of Congress over (he sub- 
ject of slavery in the District, fheri the power of Congress stands unre- 
stricted, and that would not be a better condition for the slaveholder in 
the District than to assume the restriction contained in the amendment. 
I say it would be unrestricted by constitutional operation or injunction. 
The great restrictions resulting from the obligations of justice would re- 
main, and tliev are sufficient to exact from Congn^ss the duty of ascer- 
taining, ]iiior to the abolition of slaverv, the value of the jiroperty in slaves 
in the District, and of making full, fair, and just compensation for that 
property. 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 825 

Well, Mr. President, I s.-iid yesierday there was not a resolution, except 
the first (which contained no concession by either party), that did not 
either contain some mutual concession by tlie two parties, or did not con- 
tain coacessions alto2,"etlier from the North to the Soutli. 

Now with respe -t to the resolution under cousideratiou. The Norlh has 
coatended that the power exists under the Constitution to abolish slavery. 
The S.Mith, I am aware, has oppose 1 it, and most, at least a great portion 
of the Sou h, have conteadel for the opposite construction. What does 
the res)Iutiou do? It asks of both parties to forbear uro;ing their respect- 
ive opinions, the one to the exclusion of the other, but it concedes to the 
South all that the South, it appears to me, upon this subject, ought in 
reason to demand, in so far as it requires such conditions as amount to an 
absolue security for ]>roperty in slaves in the District; such conditions as 
will probably mike the existence of slavery within the District co-eval and 
co-exreasive with its existence in any of the Slates out of and beyond the 
District. But, sii-, the second clause of this resolution provides "that it is 
expedient to prohibit within tlio District the trade in slaves brought into it 
from S ates or places beyond the limits of the District, cith.-r to be sold 
therein as merchandise, or to be transi)orted to other markets." 

Well, Mr. President, if the coni;ession be made that Congress has the 
power of legislation, and exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, liow 
can it be doubted that Congress has authority to prohibit what is called 
the slave-trade in the District of Columbia ? Sir, my interpretation of the 
Constitution is this; th it, with regard to all parts of it which operate upon 
the States, Congress can exercise no power which is not granted, or which 
is not a necessary imphcation from a granted power. Tliat is the rule for 
the action of Congress in relation to its le^'islation upon the States, but in 
relation to its legislation upon this District, the reveise. I take it to be 
the true rule that Congress has all power over the District which is not 
prohibited by some part of the Constitution of the United States; in other 
words, that Congress has a power within the District equivalent to, and co- 
extensive with, the power which any State itself possesses within its own 
limi s. Well, sir, does any one doubt the power and the right of any 
slaveholding State in tli's Union to forbid the introduction, as merchandise, 
of slaves within their limits? Why, sir, aim )st every slaveholding State 
in the Union has exercised its power to prohibit the introduction of slaves 
as merchandise. 

It was in the Constitution of my own State; and, nijtwithstanding all 
the excitement and agitation upon the subject of slavery which occurred 
during the past year in the State of Kentucky, the same p:inciple is incor- 
porate.! in the new Constitution. It is in the Constitution, I know, of 
Mississippi. That State prohibits the introduction of slaves within its limits 
as merchandise. I believe it to be in the Constitution or in the laws of 
Marvland — in the laws of Virginia — in the laws of most of the slav.diold- 
inij States. It is true that the policv of the different shnxdiol ling States 
upon this subject has somewhat vacillated — they sometimes adopted it and 
sometimes excluded it — but there has been no diversity of opinion, no de- 
parture from the great principle, that every one of them has the power and 
authority to prohibit the introduction of slaves within their respective 
limits, if they choose to exercise it. Well, then, sir, I really do not think 
thai this resolution, which proposes to abolish that trade, ought to be con- 
sidered as a concession by either class of the States to the other class. 

I think it should be regarded as a common object, acceptable to both, 
and confoi-mable to the wishes and feelings of both ; and yet, sir, in these 



826 SPEECH ON THE 

times of fearful and alarniino; excitement — in these times when every night 
that I go to sleep and awake up in the morning, it is with the apprehension 
of some new and fearful and divadful tidings upon this agitating subject — 
I havi' seen in the act of a neighboring State, among tlie various contin- 
gencies which are enumerated, upon the happening of any one of which 
delegates are to be sent to the famous Convention which is to assemble at 
Nashville in June next, that among other substantive grounds for the 
appointment of delegates to that Convention — of delegates from the State 
to which I refer — one is, that if Congress abolish tht; slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia, that shall be cause for a Convention — in other words, 
it is cause for considering whether this Union ought to be dissolved or not 
Is it possible to portray a greater extent of extravagance to which men may 
be carried by the indulgence of their passions ? 

Sir, the power exists ; the duty, in ujy opinion, exists ; and there has 
been no time — as I may say, in language coincident with that used by the 
honorable senator from Alabama — there has been no time in my public 
life when I was not willing to concur in the abolition of the slave-trade in 
this District. I was willing to do it when Virginia's portion of the District 
was retrocedeil, that lying south of the Potomac. There is still less ground 
for objection to doing it now, when the District is limited to the portion 
this side of the Potomac, and when the motive or reason for concentrating 
slaves here in a depot, for the purpose of ti-ansportation to distant foreign 
markets, is lessened with the diminution of the District, by the retrocession 
of that portion to Viroiaia. 

Why should slave-traders who buy their slaves in Mandand or Virginia, 
come here with their slaves in order to transport them to New Orleans or 
other Southern markets ? Why not transport them from the States in 
which they are purchased ? AVIiy are the feelings of citizens here outraged 
by the scenes exhibited, and the corteges which pass along our avenues, of 
manacled human beings, not collectel at all in our own neighborhood, but 
brought from distant parts of neighboring States ? Why should they be 
outraged ? And who is there, tliat has a heart, that does not contemplate 
a spectacle of that kind with horror and indignation ? Why should they 
be outraged by a scene &o inexcusable and detestable .us this ? 

Sir, it is no concession, I repeat, from one class of States or from the 
other. It is an object in which both of them, it seems to me, should 
heartily unite, and which the one side as much as the other should rejoice 
in adopting, inasmuch as it lessens one of the causes of inquietude and dis- 
satisfaction which are connected with this District. Abolish the slave-trade 
in this District; reassert the doctrine of the resolution of 18.'^8, that by an 
implied assent on the part of Cong ess slavery ougiit not to be abolished in 
the District of Columbia, while it remains in the State of Maryland ; reju^sert 
the ])rinciple of that resolution, and adopt ihe other healing mea-ures — or 
other »imilar or more healing measures — for I am not attaclud to any thing 
that is the production of my own hand, if any thing better should be offered 
by an} body else — adopt the other healing meisures which are jiroposed, 
and which are re.juired l>y the distracted condition of the country, and I 
vetiture to say that, as we have had peace and quiet for the last twenty 
yejii-s, since the termination of the Missouri controversy, we shall have, in 
all human probability, peace for a longer peiiod to come upon this unhappy 
subject of slav('ry. 

The next resolution is : 

" That more effectual provision ought to be made by law, according to 
the requirement of the Constitution, for the restitution and delivery of per- 



I 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 327 

sons bound to service or labor in any State, who may escape into any other 
State or Territory in the Union.'' 

Now, Mr, Presi.lent, upon tliiit subject I g:o with him wlio goes furthest 
in the interpretation of that clause in the Constitution. In my liumblo 
opinion, sir, it is a re(|uirement by the Constitution of the TTnited States 
wliicli is not limited ui its operation to the Connrress of the United States, 
but extends to every State in tlie Union auil to tlie officei-s of every State 
in the Union; and I go one step furtlier; it extends to every man in the 
Union, and devolves upon them all an obligation to assist in tlie recovery 
of a fugitive from labor who takes refuge in or escapes into one of the free 
States.'' And, sir, I thiidc I can maintain all this by a fair interpretation of 
the Constitution. It provides — 

''That no person held to servnce or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regula- 
tion therein, bo discharged from service or labor, but shall be delivered up 
on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." 

It will be observed, Mr. President, that this clause in the Constitution is 
not among the enumerated powers granted to Congress, for, if that had 
been the case, it might have been urged that Congress alone coidd legislate 
to carry it into effect ; but it is one of the general powers, or one of the 
general rights secured by this constitutional instrument, and it addresses 
itself to ail who are bound by the Constitution of the United States. Now, 
sir, the officers of the General Government are bound to take an oath to 
support the Constitution of the United Slates. All State officers arc re- 
quired by the Constitution to take an oath to support the Constitution of 
the United States ; and all men who love their country and are obedient 
to its laws, are bound to assist in the execution of those laws, whether they 
are fundamental or derivative. I do not say that a private individual is 
bound to make the tour of his State in order to assist an owner of a slave 
to recover his property ; but I do say, if he is present when the owner of 
a slave is about to assert his rights and endeavor to obtain possession of 
his property, every man present, whether he be an officer of the General 
Government or the State Government, or a private individual, is bound to 
assist, if men are bound at all to assist in the execution of the laws of their 
country. 

Now what is this provision ? It is that such fugitives shall be delivered 
upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. As 
has been already remarked in the course of the debate upon the bill upon 
this subject which is now pending, the language used in regard to fugitives 
from criminal offenses and fugitives from labor is precisely the same. Tho 
fugitive from justice is to be delivered up, and to be removed to the State 
having jiuisdiction; the fugitive from labor is to be delivered up on claim 
of the partv to whom such servi<e is due. AVell, has it ever been con- 
tended on the part of any State that she is not bouml to surrender a fugi- 
tive from justice, upon demand from the State from which he fled ? I 
believe not. There, have been some exceptions to the performance of this 
duty, but thev have not denied the general right ; and if they have refused 
in any instance to give up the person demamled, it has been upon some 
technical or legal ground, not at all questioning the general right to have 
the fugitive surrendered, or the obligation to deliver him up as intended by 
the Constitution. 

I think, then, Mr. President, that with regard to tho true interpretation 
of this provision of the Constitution there ca:i be no doubt. It imposes an 
obligation upon all the Slates, free or slaveholding ; it imposes an obliga- 



328 SPEECH ox TUE 

tion upon all oflScers of the Government, State, or Federal ; and, I will 
add, upon all the peoi)le of the United States, under particular circun)- 
stances, to assist iu the surrender and recovery of a fugitive slave from hia 
mas;er. 

There has been some confusion, and, I think, some misconception, on 
this suliject, in conserpience of a recent decision of the Supreme Court of 
the United Siates. I think that decision has been entirely misapprehended. 
There is a vast diti'erenec between imposing impediments and attbrding 
facilities for the recovery of fugitive slaves. The Supreme Court of the 
United States has only decided that all laws of impediment a.e unconsti- 
tutional. 1 know there are some general expressions iu the opinion to 
wdiich I have referred — the case of Maryland against Pennsylvania — that 
seem to import otherwise ; but I think, when you come attentively to read 
the whole opinion, and the opinion pronounced by all the judges, espe- 
cially if you take the trouble of doing what I have done, to converse with 
them as to what their real meaning was, you will Had that the whole ex- 
tent of the authority which they in'.en.ied to establish was that any laws 
of impediment enacted by the States were laws that were forbidden by the 
provision of the Constitution to which I reler; that the General Govern- 
ment had no light, by an act of tlie Congress of the United Scates, to impose 
obligations upon State otficers not impv^sed by tiie authority of their own 
Constitution and laws. It is impossible the decision could have been 
otherwise. It would have been perfectly extrajudicial. The Court had no 
ri<>-ht to decide the question whether the laws of facility were or were not 
unconstitutional. 

The only question before the Court was the law of impediment passed 
by the Legislature of Pennsylvania ; and if they had gone beyond the 
case before them, and undertaken to decide upon a case not belbiethem, a 
principle which was not tairly comprehended within the case betore them, 
it would be what the lawyers term an obiter dictum, and is not binding 
either on that Court itself or any other tribunal. 1 say it was not possible 
that, with the case before the Court of a law for giving facility to the 
holder of the slave to recover his property again, it was uiterly impossible 
that anv tribunal should pronounce a decision that such aid and assistance, 
rendered by the authority of the State, under this provision of the Consti- 
tution of the United States, is unconstitutional and void. The Court has not 
said so, or if they have said so, they have transcended their authority, and 
gone beyond the case which was before them. Laws passed by States, in 
order to assist the General Government, so far from being laws repugnant 
to the Constitution, wiMild every where be regarded as laws carrying out, 
enforcing, and fultilling the constitutional duti.'S which are created by that 
iustruujent. 

Wliv, sir, as well might it be cont<'n(led that if Congress were to declare 
war — jind no one will doubt the power to declare war is vested exclusively 
in Congress ; no State has the right to do it — no oue will contend seri- 
ously, I apprehend, that after the dt.'claration of war it would be unconsti- 
tutional on the part of any of the States to assist iu the vigorous and 
etfective prosecution of that war; and yet it would be just as unconstitu- 
tional to lend their aid to the successtul an-l glorious termination of the 
war in which we might be embarked, as it would be to assist in the per- 
furmunee of a high duty whit'h addresses itself to all the States and all 
the peo})le of all the Suites. 

Mr. President, I do think that that whole class of Legislation, begin- 
uin<r in the Noithern Slates and extending to some of the Western 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. S29 

States, by wliicli obstructions mikI iinpediinents have been thrown in the 
way of the re;-overy of fiiii^itive slaves, is unconstitutional, and has oiigin- 
ated in a spirit which 1 trust will correct, itseif wlion tho-c Statrs couie 
cahuly to consider the natu;e and extent of their federal oLligations. Of 
all the Slates in this Union, unless it he Virtfini;i, the State of which I am 
a resilient sutlers most by the escape of their slaves to aljoininij S a'es. 

1 have very little doubt, indee I, ihat the extent of loss to t!ie State of 
Kentucky, in consequence of the escape of her slaves is greater, at least,, 
in ])r(iportiou to the total numlier ()f slaves which are held wiihin that 
conini.inweallh, even than in Virginia. I know full well, and so does the 
honorable Senator from Ohio know, that it is at the utmost liazard, and 
insecurity to life itself, that a Kentuckian can cross tlic liver and go in^ 
the interior to take back his fugitive slave to the place from whence he 
fled. Recently an example occurred even in the city of Cincinnati, in 
respect to one of our most respectable citizens. Not having visited Ohio 
at all, but Covington, on the opposite side of the river, a little slave of his 
escaped over to Cincinnati, lie pursued it; he found it in the house in 
which it was concealed ; he took it out, and it was rescued by the violence 
and force of a negro mob from his possession — the ])olice of the city 
standing by, and either unwilling or unable to afford the assistance which 
was requisite to enable hiin to recover his property. 

Upon this subject I do think that we have just and serious cause of 
comphiint against the free Stiites. I think thev fail in fulfillina: a irreat 
obligation, and the failure is precisely upon one of those subjects wliich in 
its nature is the most irritating and iuliaming to those who live in the 
slave States. 

Now, sir, I think it is a mark of no good neighborhood, of no kindness, 
of no courtesy, that a man living in a slave State can not now, with any 
sort of safety, travel in the free States with his servants, although he lias 
no purpose whatever of stopping there longer than a short time. And on 
this whole subject, sir, how has the legislation of the free States altered for 
the worse within the course of the last twenty or thirty years ? Why, sir, 
most of those States, until within a period of the last twenty or thirty years, 
had laws for the benefit of sojourners, as they were called, passing tlirough 
or abiding for the moment in the free States, with their servants. Sir, I 
recollect a cuse that occurred during the war. My f.iend, Mr. Cheves, of 
South Carolina, instead of going home in the vacation, went to Pliiladel- 
phia, taking his family servants with him. Some of the Abolitionists of 
that city took out a habeas corpus, seized the slaves, and the question was 
brought before the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania, where it 
was argued for days. 

It Wcvs necessary, during the progress of the arguments, to refer to a 
great variety of statutes passed from time to time by the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, on behalf of the sojourner, guaranteeing and securing to him 
the possession of his property during his tempory passage or abode within 
the limits of that commonwealth. Finally, the court gave their opinion 
seriatim — each judge his separate opinion, until it came to Judge Biecken- 
ridge to deliver his, who was the youngest judge, I think, on the bench. 
During the progress of the delivery of their opinions they had frequently 
occasion to refer to the acts passed for the benefit of sojournei"s; and each 
of the judges who preceded Mr, Breckeiuidge always pronounce I the word. 
" sudgeners." When it came to Judge Bieckeiiridge to deliver his opinion, 
he sai.l, '' I agree in all that my learned brethren have pronounced upon 
this occasion, except in their pronunciation of the word ' sojourner.' Thoy 



330 



SPEECH ON THE 



pronounced it ' su(]goner ;' but I rail it 'sojourner.' " [Laujrhter.] Well, 
now, sir, all these laws in Ix'lialt of tlit-sc sojourners throuo;li the free States 
are swept away, except 1 believe in the State of Khoae Island. 

Mr. Dayton — And New Jersey. 

Mu. Clay — Ay, and in New Jersey. I am happy to hear if; but in 
most of the larije States, in most, if not all, of the Xew Eni^dand States, 
these laws have been abolisliel, sliowini; the pro^rrcssive teiidencv of bad 
iieiirhborhood and unkind action on the part of the free States toward the 
slaveholdin;^ States. 

Mr. Piesident, I do not mean to contest the ground — I am not s^uin<; to 
argue the question, whether, if a man carries his slave a oluntarily into the 
f^ee States and he is not a fngitive, whether that slave, by the voluntary 
action of the master, does or does not become instantly entitled to his free- 
dom, 1 am not going to argue that question. 1 know what the decision 
has been at the North, but 1 mean to say it is uidcind, it is uiiiieighborly, 
it is not in the spirit of fraternal connection wliich exists between the mem- 
bers of this confederacy, to execute a strict legal principle in the way suo-- 
gested, even supposing it to be right so to "do. But where there is no 
j)urpose of permanent abode, no intention of settling finally and conclusively, 
and planting his slaves within the commonwealth, it is but right, and a 
proof of good neighborhood and kind and friendly feeling, to" allow the 
owner of the slave to pass with his propertv unmolested throu<i-h vour 
State. i I • ^ J 

Allow rac to say upon the subject, though it is perhaps going further 
into detail than is necessary, that of all the exercise of power of those who 
attempt to seduce from their owners their slaves, there is no instance in 
which it is exercised so injuriously to the objects of their chaiity and 
benevolence as in the case of the seduction of iamily slaves from the service 
of their owner. The slaves in a iamily are treated with all the kindness 
that the children of the fauiily receive. Every thing which thev want for 
their comfort is given them with the most lileral indulgence ;' and, sir, I 
have known more instances than one where, l.y this practice of the seduc- 
tion of family servants from their owners, they have been rendered w retched 
and uulia])py in the tree Stales; and in my own family, a slave who had 
been seduced away, addiessed her mistress and begged and implored of her 
the means of getting back from the state of freedom to which she had been 
seduced, to the state of .slavery in which she was so much moi-e happv ; 
and in tlie case to which I have referied the means were atlorded her, and 
she returned to the State of Kentucky to her mistress. 

Then, Mr. President, I think that the existing laws upon the subject, for 
the recovery of fugitive slaves, and the restoration and delivering of them 
up tn their owners, being found inadequate and iueftective, itis incum- 
bent on Congress — and I hope hereafter, in a better state of feeling, when 
more harmony and good-will j)revail among the members of this ron- 
federa 'y, it will bo regarded by the free States themselves as a part of 
their du;y also — to assist in allaying this irritating and ilisturbing subject 
to the i)eace of our Union; but, at all events, whether they do it or not, it 
is our tluty to do it. It is our duty to make the law more etfecfive, and I 
shall go with the sen.itMi- fiom the South who goes furthest in raakino' 
])enal laws and imposing the heaviest sanctions for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, and the restoraUon of them to their owners. 

Mr. I'resiilent, upon this part of the subject, however, allow me to make 
an observation or tw... I do not think the States, as States, ought to be 
resi)onsiIile for all the misconduct of particular individuals within thoso 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 831 

States. I think that tlie States are only to Ik; licld rcsnonsible wlicii tlioy 
act in tlioir sovoivio;n ciipufity. If iIutc ai'c lew pi-rsons, indi-jcivct. mail, if 
you cliooso — f.inatics, if you choose so to call them — who are for dissolviiif; 
this Uuion, as we know there are some at the Norlh, ami for dissolvinjr it in 
conseijuonce of the connoftion which exists lietweeii the free and slavehold- 
iuiX Stales, I do not think that any State in which such madmen as they 
are to be fouml, ought to be held responsible for the doctrines they propa- 
gate, unless tlie State itself adopts those doctrines. 

Sir, there have been, ])or]iaps, mutual causes of com])laint ; and I know, 
at least I have heard, that Massachusetts, for some of her unfriendly laws 
on the subject of the recovery of fugitive slaves, urges as the motive for 
the passage of those laws the treatment which a ci-rlain minister of liers 
experienced in Charleston some years ago. Mr. lloar, 1 think, is the name 
of the individual who was sent to South Carolina to take care of the ti-ee 
negroes of Massachusetts that might jiass to Charleston in tlie vessels of 
Massachusetts. I think it was a mission that it was hardly worthy of Mas- 
sachusetts to create. I think she might have omitted to send Mr. Uoar 
upon any such mission ; but slie thought it right to send liim, and he went 
there for the purpose of asserting, as he said, the rights of those free peo- 
ple of color bel'ore the coui'ts of justice, and of testing the validity of cer- 
tain laws in South Carolina with regard to the prohibition of free negroes 
from coming into her ports. I believe that was the object, that was the 
purpose of his mission. IJe went there to create no disturbance, as I un- 
deistand, except so far as asserting those rights and privileges, in the sense 
in which Massachusetts held them, might create disturbance. He was vir- 
tuidly driven out of Charleston, as I believe he or some other emissary of 
the same kind was driven out of New Orleans. I do not mean to say 
whether it was right or wrong to expel him. What I mean to say is, that 
Massachusetts, or some of her citizens, has said, that, after finding this 
treatment toward those whom she chooses to consider citizens, on the ])art 
of South Carolina, she determined on that course of legislation by which 
she has withdrawn all aid and assistance for the recovery (jf fugitives, and 
interposes obstacles ; and then she pleads the treatment of Mr. Hoar as an 
apology. I think that furnished her with no sufficient apology. If South 
Carolina treated her ill, it is no reason why she should ill treat Kentucky 
anil Virginia, and other slaveholding States that had done her lio wrong. 
But she thoutrht so. 

I mention both cases — the case of the expulsion of Mr. Hoar from 
Charleston, and the ])assage of the laws of Massachusetts — not bv way of 
a}>probation of either, but to show that there have been, unhapjiily, nuitual 
causes of agitation, furnished by one class of States as well as by the other; 
though, I admit, not in the same degree by the slave States as by the free 
States. And I admit, also, that the free States have much less cause for 
anx'e'y and solicitude on this subject of slavery than the slave States, and 
that far more extensive excuses, if not justification, ought to be extended to 
the slave than the free States, on account of the difiereuce of the condition 
of (he respective parties. 

Mr. President, passing from that resolution, I will add only a single ob- 
servation, that when the bill comes up to be finally acted on, I will vote 
most coidially and heartily for it. 

Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts — Will the honorable Senator permit me to 
int>'r;ui)t hiin for a moment? I want to say one word in behalf of the 
State of Miissachusetts, with his permission. 

Mr. Clay — Certainly, certainly. 



332 SPEECH ox THE 

Mr, Davis — I have never, althousrh most likely he may have, heard the 
apolocry stated bv the honorable senator for pa-;siiior the law to which he 
has referred ; but on the contrary I have always understood that the law 
which Massachusetts had for restorinir fu£;itive slaves, was repealed because 
the coui'ts below, as they understood it, had pronounced their law uncon- 
stitutional. That is the irround whi( h they t( ok ; whether they were wise 
in the lei^islation they adopted I shall not undertake to say. But I wish to 
say one word in retrard to the mission, as it is termed by the honorable 
senator fioin Kentucky, to South Cai-olina. 

If I call llie facts to my recollection correctly, they are these. We are 
the owners of nmch shippinnr; we employ many sailors, and amonnj them 
we enijiloy tree colored men — men whom we in Massachusetts acknowledge 
to be citizens of the United States and citizens of the commonwealth, and 
entitled to the rights of citizens. These citizens were taken from our ves- 
sels when they arrived in South Carolina, and were held in custody till the 
vessels sailed again. This our citizens comjdained of, whether justly or 
unjustly, that it was an encroachment, in the first place, upon the rights of 
citizens, and, in the next place, that it was a great inconvenience to men 
engaged in commerce. If I lemendjer rightly, and I think I do, the State 
of Massachusetts au'horized its (loveruor to propose, at the expense of the 
State, to some suitable and proper person, who was a citizen of South Caro- 
lina, to test the right to hold her citizens in custody in this way. in the 
courts of the State, or in the courts of the United States. If I remember 
rightly, that was declined by one or more citizens of South C:irolina. Then 
the mission, to which the honorable Senator refers, was instituted, and the 
termination of it I believe he has correctly stated. 

I wisli it to appear that Massa<'husetts had no aggressive purpose what- 
ever, but simply wished tliat the judiciary should decide the question ex- 
isting between tliem. She wanted nothing more, asked nothing more. 

Mr. Clay — Mr. President, I hear with nmch pleasure this explanation. 
I have been informed, however, by an eminent citizen of Massachusetts, 
whose name it is unnecessary to mention — he is not a member of this 
body — that the motive for the repeal of these law^s, or for the passage of 
tliese laws, at least one of the motives, was the treatment of Mr. Hoar in 
Chailestoii. However, I am glad to bear that it proceeded from another 
cause, and that is what I conceive to be a misconception of what the true 
opinion of the judges of the Siipieme Comt was. When the true exposi- 
tion of that opinion comes to be known in Massachusetts, I trust that the 
Legislature of that State will restore the laws fa<-ilitating the recovery of 
fugitive .slaves, which she repealed in consequence of that misconcejition. 

Mr. President, I have a great deal yet to say, and I sh:dl, therelbre, pass 
frou) the consideration of this seventh resolution with the observation, 
which I believe I have partly made before, thnt the most stringent pro- 
vision n]pon this subject which can be devised will meet with my hearty 
concurrence and co-operation, in the passage of the bill which is under the 
consideration of the Senate. The last lesolution declares — 

"That Congress has no po'ver to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves 
between the slaveholding States; but that the admission or exclusion of 
Blayes brought from one into another of them, depends exclusively upon 
their own |)arlicular laws." 

This is a concession, not, I admit, of any real constitutional jirovision, 
but a conce.s.si(Mi from the North to the South of what is understood, I be- 
lieve, by a great number at the Noith, to be a constitutional jwovi-ion. If 
the lesolution should be adopted, take away the decision of the Supreme 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 383 

Court of the United States on this suhjcct, and tliere is a great deal, I 
know, that nii<,'I.t be sj'id on both sides, as to the ri^-ht of Coni^icss to recf- 
uhate the trade between the States, and, conseciuently, the trade in slaves 
between the States ; but I think the decision of the Supreme Court has 
been founded upon correct princi])les, and I trust it will forever ))Ut an end 
to the question whetlier Congress has or has not the power to regulate the 
intercourse and trade in slaves between the ditlereut States. 

Such, Ml'. President, is the series of resolutions which in an earnest and 
anxious desire to present the olive branch to both parts of this distracted, 
and at the present moment unha|ii)y country, I have thought it my duty 
to ofter. Of all men upon earth I am the least attached to any productions 
of my own mind. Xo man upon earth is more ready tlian I am to sur- 
render any thing which I have proposed, and to accept in lieu of it any 
thing that is better ; but I put it to the candor of honorable senators on 
the other side and upon all sides of the House, wliether their duty will be 
performed by sim])ly limiting themselves to objections to any one or to all 
of the series" of resolutions that I have ottered. If my plan of peace, and 
accommodation, and harmony, is not right, present us your plan. Let us 
see the counter project. Let us see how all the questions that have arisen 
out of this unhappy subject of slavery can be better settled, more fairly 
and justly settled to all quarters of the Union, than on the plan proposed 
in the resolutions which I have ofiered. Present me such a scheme, and I 
■will hail it with pleasure, and will accept it without the slightest feeling of 
regret that my own was abandoned. Sir, wliile I was engaged in anxious 
consideration upon this subject, the idea of the Missouri Compromise, as it 
has been termed, came under my review, was considered by me, and finally 
rejected as in my judgment less worthy of the common acceptance of both 
parts of this Union than die project which I have ofiered for your consid- 
eration. 

Pefore I enter into a particular examination, however, of that Missouri 
Compromise, I beg to be allowed to correct a great error which is prevail- 
ing, not merely in'this Senate, but throughout the whole country, in respect 
to my agency in the Missouri Compromise, or rather in respect to the line 
of 36° 30' which was established in 1820 by an act of Congress. I do 
not know whether any thing has excited more surprise in my mind, as to 
the rapidity with which iniportant historical transactions are obliterated 
and pass from the mind, than when I understood every where that I had 
been the author of the line of 36° 30', which was established upon the 
occasion of the admission of Missouri into the L^nion. It would take too 
much time to go over the whole of that important era in the public aflairs 
of the country. I shall not do it, although I have got ample mateiials 
before me, derived from a careful examination of the journals <»f both 
Houses. I will not occupy your time by going in detail through the 
whole transaction, but I wilf content myself with saying that so far from 
my having presented as a proposition this line of 36"" 30', upon the occa- 
sion of the consideration whether Missouri should be admitted into the 
Union or not, it did not originate in the Iluuse of which I was a memlrer. 

It oiig-inated in this body, as those who will cast their recollection back, 
and I ain sure the honorable senator from Missouri, (Mr. Benton), more 
correctly than any body else, nmst bring to his recullectiou the fact that at 
the Congress when the proposition was first made to admit Missouri — or 
rather to allow her to hold a convention and frame a constitution and de- 
cide whether she should or should not be admitted into the Union — the 
bill failed by a disagreement between the two Houses, the House insisting 



S34 SPEECH ON THE 

on and the Senate dissenting from the provisions contained in the ordinance 
of 1787. The House in';istinGf on the interdiction of shivery, and the Sen- 
ate rejecting the proposition of the interdiction of slavery, the bill fell 
through ; it did not pass at that session of Congress. At the next session 
it was renewed, and at the time of its renewal Maine was knocking at our 
door to he admitted into the Union. In the House there was a majority 
for the restriction as to slavery in Missouri ; in the S^-nate there was a ma- 
jority opposed to all restriction. In the Senate, therefore, in order to carry 
through the Missouri bill, or the pronsion for her admission — or rather 
authorizing her to determine the question of her admission — that bill was 
coupled with the bill for the admission of Maine. They were connected 
together, and the Senate said to the House, "You want a bill for the ad- 
mission of Maine passed, but you shall not have it, unless you take along 
with it a bill for the arlmission of Missouri also." There was a majority, a 
veiy large one, in the Senate, for coupling both together. 

Well, sir, the bill went through all the usual stages of disagreement of 
committees of conference, and there were two committees of conference on 
the occasion before the matter was finally settled. And it was finally set- 
tled to disconnect the two bills — to admit Maine soparatwly, without any 
connection with Missouri, and to insert in the Missouri bill a clause pro- 
posed in the Senate of the United States by Mr. Thomas, Senator from 
Ilhnois, restricting slavery north of the line 36° 30', and leanng it open 
south of that line, either to admit it or not to admit it. Well, sir, the bill 
finally passed. The committees of conference of the two Houses recom- 
mended the detachment of the two cases, and the passage of the Missouri 
bill with the clause 36° 30' in it ; and so it passed, so it went to Missouri, 
so it for a moment quieted the country, by means of the introduction of the 
clause 36° 30'. You will find, I repeat, sir, if you will take the trouble to 
look at the journals, that on as many as three or four difterent occasions 
Mr. Thomas in every instance presented the proposition of 36° 30'. It 
was finally agreed to ; and I take occasion to say that among those who 
voted for the 36° 30' were the majority of the Southern members — my 
friend from Alabama (Mr. King), in the Senate, Mr. Pinckney, from Mary- 
land, and indeed the majority of the Southern Senators voted in favcir of 
the line 36° 30'; and the majority of the Southern members in the other 
House, at the head of whom was Mr. Lowndes himself, voted also for that 
line. I have no doubt I did also ; but, as I was Speaker of the House at 
the time, and the journal does not show how the Speaker votes except in 
the case of a tie, I was not able to ascertain, by a resort to the recoids, how 
I did vote; but I have veiy little doubt that I voted, in common with my 
other Southern friends, for the adoption, in a spirit of compromise, it is 
true, of the line 36° 30'. 

Well, sir, so the matti-r ended in 1820. During that year Missouri held 
her convention, adopted her constitution, sent her di-legates to Congress, 
seeking to be admitted into the Union ; but she had inserted a clause in 
her constitution containing a prohibition of free people of color from that 
State. She came here with her constitution containing that prohibition, 
and immeiliately the Northern members took exception to it. The tlame 
which had been repressed during the previous session now burst forth with 
double violence tlnvMighout the whole Union. Legislative bodies all got 
in motion to keep out Missouri, in consequence of her interdiction of free 
people of color frjin within her limits. I did not arrive at Congress that 
sessiun till Januuiy, and when I got here I found both bodies completely 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 335 

paralyzed in consequence of f lie striio-ofle to exclude Missouri from the Union 
on account of that prohibition. 

Woll, sir, I male the first etlbrt in the House to settle it. I asked for a 
committee of thirteen, and a committee of thirteen Avas granted to me, 
representing all the old States of the Union. The committee met. I 
presented to tliem a resolution, whi'-h was adopteil hv the c<)nimitt<'e and 
reported to the House — not unlike the one to which I will presently call 
the attention of the Senate — and we should have carried it in the House 
but for the votes of Mr. limdolph, of Virginia ; Mr. E<lwards, of North 
Carolina; and Mr. Burton,- of North Carolina — two of the three, I Ixdieve, 
no longer living. Those three Southern votes were all cast against the 
compromise which was prepared by the committee, or rather by myself, as 
chairman of the committee of thirteen, and defeated it. 

Weil, sir, in that coiitlition the thing remained for several days. The 
greatest anxiety pervaded the country — the public mind was unsettled — 
men were unhappy — tliere was a large m;ijoiity of the House then, as I 
hope and trust tliere is now a large majority in Congress, in favor of an 
equitable accommodation or settlement of the question ; and the resolution 
would have been adopted, I believe, but when it came to the vote of yeas 
and nays, unfortunately then — more unfortunately then, T hope, than now, 
if there should be occasion for it now — there were few Curtiuses and Leoni- 
dases willing to risk themselves for the safety and security of their country. 
I endeavored to avail myself of that good feeling, as tar as I could ; and, 
after a few days had elapsed, I brought forward another proposition ; a new 
one, perfectly unpracticed in this country, either before or since, as far as I 
know. 

I proposed a joint committee of the two houses ; that of the House to 
consist of twenty-three members (the nuinlter of the Senate committee I 
do not recollect), and that this committee should be appointed by ballot ; 
for at that time Mr. Taylor, of New York, was in the chair, and Mr. Taylor 
was the very man who lial first proposed the restriction upon Mis^^ouri. 
He proposed that she should only be admitted on the principle of the or- 
dinance of 1Y87 ; I proposed, therefore, that the committee be appointed 
by ballot. AVell, sir, my motion was carried by a large mnjority ; and 
members came to me from all quarters of the House, and said, '' Whom, 
Mr. Clay, do you want to have with you on the committee ?" I made out 
my list of twenty-three members, and I venture to say that that haj^pened 
on that occasion which will hardly ever liapj)en again, eigliteeu of the 
twenty-three were elected on the first ballot, and the remaining five on my 
list having the largest nuitdier of votes, but ii<tt the majoritv, I moved to 
dispense with any further balloting, and that these five should be added to 
the eighteen, thus completing the committee of twenty-three. One or two 
gentlemen, Mr. Livermore, of New Hampshire, and one or two others, de- 
clined to Serve on the committee ; and, verv much to my reixret, and some- 
what to my annoyance, the lamented Mr. Kandolph and another person 
were placed in their situation — I forget wdiether done by ballot or by the 
Speaker — it is enough to say they were put on the committee. 

Well, sir, the Senate immediately agreed to the proposition, appointed 
its committee, and we met in this hall on the Sabbath day, within two or 
three days of the close of the session, when the whole nation was waiting 
with breathless anxiety for some final an<l healing measure upon the dis- 
tracting subject wdiich occupied our attention. We met here on that dav. 
and, accordingly, the moment we met, Mr. Randolph ma<.le a sutrgestiou 
which I knew would be attended with the greatest embarrassment and dif- 



336 SPEECH ON THE 

ficulty. lie contended that over tlie two committees of the two houses the 
chairman ot"th<j IIou-;*' committee had a lij^ht to jireside, and he wi'.s about 
to insist at some length that the two committees should be blended to^rether, 
and that I should preside over both. I instantly interposed, and said that 
I di'l not think that was the correct mode, but that the chairman of the 
committ<'e of each house should ineside over liis own committee, and that 
■when the committee of one house matured and adopted a proposition, it 
should b'! submitted to the other committee, and if agreed to bv them, it 
should then be reported to the two houses, and its adoption recommended. 
That coinse was agreed upon, and Mr. Holmes, I believe, of Maine, pre- 
sided over the committee of the Senate, and I presided over the committee 
of the House. I did then, what I have jaotested I would not do at this 
session, take too much the lead in the discussion. 

I brought forward the proposition whicli I will refer to presently ; and I 
did more, I took the trouble to ascertain the views of each member of the 
committee — I polled the connnittee, if I may use the expression. I. said, 
now, gentlemen, we do not want a proposition carried here by a simple 
majority and reported to the House, there to be rejected. I am for some- 
thing practical, something conclusive, something decisive upon this agitat- 
ing (piestion, and it sliould be carried by a good majority. How will you 
vote, Mr. A.? how will you vote, Mr. B. ? how will you vote, Mr. C. ? and 
T polled them in that way. "Well, sir, to my very great hapj^iiiess, a suffi- 
cient number responded affirmatively, that the}' would vote for the proposi- 
tion, to enable me to know that, if they continued to vote that way in the 
two houses, of which I had not a particle of doubt in the world, the prop- 
osition would be carried in the two houses. Accordingly, it having been 
agreed upon by both committees, and reported to their respective bouses, 
it was finally adopted. 

This joint resolution for the admission of Missouri was passed in 1821. 
(I lind 1 have been furnished with one which was j.n'oposcd, but not adopted. 
The right one is contained in the statutes at large ; I have seen it there.) 

Well, sir, the resolution was finally adopted. I can state, without read- 
ing it, what its provisions are. It declares that, if there be any provision 
in the constitution of Missouri, incompatible with the Constitution of the 
United States, Missouri shall forbear to enforce the repugnant provisions of 
her constitution, and that she shall by some solemn and authentic act de- 
clare that she will not enforct' any provisions of her constitution which are 
incompatible with the Constitution of the United States ; and upon her 
passage of such a solemn and authentic act, the President of the United 
(States — who was at that time Mr. Monroe — shall make proclamation of the 
tact ; and thereupon, and without any further legislation of Congress, Mis- 
souri shall be admitted into the Union. 

Now, sir, I want to call your attention to this period of history, and to 
the transactions which took place diu'iug the progress of the discussion 
upon the resolution. 

During the discussion which took jilace in the House at that time, from 
day to day, ami from night to night — for the discussion frci^uently ran into 
the night — we who were for admitting Missouri into the Union said to our 
brethren from the North, '' Whv, gentlemen, if there be any provision in 
the constitution of Missouri which is re[)Ugnant to the Constitution of 
the United States, it is a nullity. The Constitution of the United States, 
by virtue of its own oi)eration — its own s-df operation — vacates it. Any 
tribunal on earth, before which the question may be bnnight, must pro- 
nounce the Constitution uf the United Slates paramount, and must pro- 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS, 337 

nounce invalid the repugnant provisions of the constitution of Missouri." 
Well, sir, the argument was turned, and twisted, and used in every ])0S3iblG 
variety of form. All was in vain. An inflexible majority stood out to the 
la.st against the a hnission of Missouri ; and yet the resolution — 

Mr. Underwood — I have it here. 

Mr. Clay — If you will read it, I shall be obliged to you. 

Mr. Underwood read the resolution as follows : 

"resolution providing for the admission of the state of MISSOURI 
INTO the UNION ON A CERTAIN CONDITION. 

'■'■Resolved hij the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Corifjress assembled, Tiiat Missouri shall be admitted 
into this Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects 
whatever, upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause of the 
26th section of the third article of the Constitution, submitted on the part 
of saitl State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage 
of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which 
any citizen of either of the States of this Union shall be excluded from the 
enjoyment of any of the privileges ami immunities to which such citizen is 
entitled under the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That the 
Legislature of the said State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent 
of the said State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to 
the President of the United States, on or before the fourtli Monday in 
November next, an authentic copy of the said act; upon the receipt 
whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact ; where- 
upon, and without any further proceeding on the part of Congress, the 
admission of the said State into the Union shall be considered as complete. 

"[Approved March 2, 1822.] " 

Isiv. Clay — There is the resolution, sir, and you see it is precisely what 
I have stated. After all this excitement throusjhout the countrv, reachiuir 
to such an alarming point that the Union itself was supposed to be in the 
most imminent peril an<l danger, the parties were satisfied by the declara- 
tion of an incontestable principle of constitutional law, that when the Con- 
stitution of a State is violative in its provisions of the Constitution of the 
United States, the Constitution of the United States is paramount, and the 
Constitution of the State in that particular is a nullity and void. That was 
all. They wanted something as a justification, and this appeared, at least, 
a justification of the course they took. There is a great deal of language 
there of a high-sounding character — that it shall be a fundamental act, a 
solemn act, an authentic act ; but, after all, when you come to strip it of 
its verbiage, it is nothing but the announcement of the principle that the 
Constitution of the United States is paramount over the local Constitution 
of any one of the States of the Union. 

Mr. President, I may draw from that transaction in our history which 
we are now examining, this moral ; that now, as then, if we will only suffer 
our reason to have its scope and sway, and to still and hush the passion 
and excitement that has been created by the occasion, the difficulty will be 
more than half removed, in the settlement, upon just and amicable princi- 
ples, of any que?^ions which unha{)pily divide us at this moment. 

But, sir, I wish to contrast the plan of accommodation which is proposed 
by me with that which is offered by the Missouri compromise line being 
extended to the Pacific Ocean, and to ask of gentlemen from the South, 

22 



388 SPEECH ON THE 

and gentlemen from tlie Xortb, too, which is most proper, which most just, 
and to wliich there is tlie least cause of objection i 

Now, sir, what was done by the Missouri line ? Slavery was positively 
interdicted north of that line. The question of the admission or exclusion 
pf slavery south of that line was not settled. There was no provision that 
slavery should be introluced or established south of that line. In point of 
fact, it existed in all the territory south of the line of 36^ 30', embracing 
Arkansas and Louisiana. It was not necessary then, it is true, to insert a 
clause ailmitting slavery at that time. But, sir, if there is a power to in- 
terdict, there is a power to aJmit ; and I put it to gentlemen from the 
South, are they prepared to be satisfied with the line of 36° 30', interdict- 
ing shivery to the north of it, and giving them no guaranty for the posses- 
sion of slavery south of that line ? The honorable senator from Mississippi 
told us the other dav that he was not prepared to be satisfied with that 
compromise line. He told us, if I understand him rightly, that nothing 
short of a positive introduction — 
Mr. FooTE — Recognition. 

Mr. Clay — That nothing short of a positive recognition of slavery south 
of the line of 3G° 30' would satisfy him. Well, is there any body who 
believes that you could get twenty votes in this body, or a ])roportional 
number in the other House, to a declaration in favor of the recognition of 
slavery south of the line of 36° 30'? It is impossible. All that you can 
get, all that you can expect to get, all that was proposed at the last session, 
was action on the' north of the line, and non-action as regards slavery south 
of that line. It is interdicted on one side, without any corresponding pro- 
vision for its admission on the other side of the line of 36° 30'. 

Now, sir, when I came to consider the subject, and to compare the \>vo- 
visions of the line of 36° 30' — the Missouri compromise line — with the 
plan which I ])ropose for the accommodation of this question, what said I 
to myself? Why, if I offer the line of 36° 30', interdicting slavery north 
of it, and leaving the question open south of that line, I offer that which is 
illusory to the South ; I offer that which will deceive them, if they sup- 
pose that slavery will be introduced south of that line. It is better for 
them, I said to "myself — it is better for the whole South, that there should 
be non-action on both sides, than that there should be action interdicting 
slavery on one side, without action for the admissii.n of slavery on the other 
side of the line. Is it not so ? What, then, is gained by the South, if the 
Missouri line is extended to the Pacific, with an interdiction of slavery north 
of it ? Why, sir, one of the very arguments which have been most often 
and most seriously urged by the South has been this, that wo do not want 
you to legislate upon the subject at all ; you ought not to touch it ; you 
have no power over it. I do not concur, as is well known from what I 
have said upon this occasion, in this view of the subject. But that is the 
Southern argument. We do not want you to legislate at all on the subject 
of slavery ; but if you adopt the Missouri line and extend it to the Pacific, 
and interdict slavery north of that line, you do legislate upon the subject 
of slavery, and you legislate without a corresponding equivalent of legisla- 
tion on the subject of slavery south of the line. For, if there be legislation 
interdicting slavery north of the line, the principle of equality would require 
that there sho\ild be legislation admitting slavery south of the line. 

Sir, I have said that I never could vote for it, and I repeat that I never 
can, and never will vote for it ; and no earthly power shall ever make me 
vote, to plant slavery where slaveiy does not exist. Slill, if there be a 
majority — and there ought to be such a nnjoriiy — for interdicting slavery 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 339 

north of the line, there oiioht to be an equal majority — if equality and 
justice be done to the Soutli — to admit slavery south of the line. And if 
there be a majority ready to accomplish both of these purposes, thouifh I 
can not concur in the action, yi't I would be one of the last to create any 
disturbance, I would be one of llu- fiist to acquiesce in such legislation, 
tliouirji it is contrary to my own ju'lgment and my own conscit-nce. 1 
think, then, it would be better to keep tlie whole of these territories un- 
touched by any legislation by Congress on the subject of slavery, leaving it 
open, undecided, M'ithout any action of Congress in relation to it ; that it 
would be l>est for the South, and best for all the views which the South 
has, from time to time, disclosed to us as correspondent with her wishes. 

I know it may be said with regard to these ceded territories, as it is said 
\\ith regard to California, that non-legislation implies the same thing as 
the exclusion of slavery. That we can not help. That Congress is not re- 
proachable for. If nature has pronounced the doom of slavery upon those 
territories — if she has declareil, by her immutable laws, that slavery can 
not and shall not be introduced there, whom can you reproach but nature 
or nature's God ? Congress you can not ; Congress abstains ; Congress is 
passive ; Congress is non-active in regard to the subjectt of slavery south 
and north of the line ; or rather Congress, according to the plan which 
proposes to extend no line, leaves the entire theater of these teriitories un- 
touched by legislative enactment, either to exclude or admit slavery. 

Well, sir, I ask again — if you will listen to the voice of calm and dis- 
passionate reason — I ask of any man from the South to rise and tell me if 
it is not better for his section of the Union that Congress should remain 
passive, on both sides of any ideal line, than that it should interdict slaveiy 
on one side of the line and be passive in regard to it on the other side of 
the line. 

Sir, I am taxing both the physical and intellectual powers which a kind 
Providence has bestowed upon me, too much — too much by f;ir — though 
I beg to be permitted, if the Senate will have patience with me, to conclude 
what I have to say, for I do not desire to trespass another day upon your 
time and patience, as I am approaching, though I have not yet nearly 
arrived at the conclusion. 

;Mr. Maxgum — If the senator will permit me, I will move an adjourn- 
ment. 

Mr. Clay — Xo, sir, no ; I will conclude. I think I can get on better 
to-day than I shall be able to do if the subject be postponed. 

Sir, this Union is threatened with subversion. I want, Mr. President, to 
take a very rapid glance at the course of public measures in this Union 
presently. I want, however, before I do that, to ask the Senate to look 
back upon the career which this country' has run since the adoption of this 
Constitution down to the ])resent day. "Was there ever a nation upon 
which the sun of heaven has shone that has exhibited so much of pros- 
perity ? At the commencement of this Government our population 
amounted to about four millions ; it has now reached upward of twenty 
millions. Our territory was limited chiefly and principally to the border 
upon the Atlantic ocean, and that whi(-h includes the southern shores of 
the interior lakes of our country. 

Our country now extends from the Northern provinces of Great Britain 
to the Kio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico on one side, and from the At- 
lantic Ocean to the Pacific on the other side — the largest extent of terri- 
tory under any Government that exists on the face of the earth, with oidy 
two solitary exceptions. Our tonnage, from being nothing, has risen in 



340 SPEECH ON THE 

mafruitude and amount so as to rival that of the nation who has been 
proudly characterized " the mistress of tlie ocean." We have gone through 
many wars — wars, too, with the very nation from whom we broke oti' in 
1776, as weak and feeble colonies, and asserted our independence as a mem- 
ber of the family of nations. And, sir, we came out of that struggle, un- 
equal as it was — ariiifd as she was at all point*, in consequencn:' of ju^t 
having come out of her long struggles with otht-r European nations, and 
unarmed as we were at all points, in consequence of the habits and nature 
of our country and its institutions — we came, I sav, out of that war with- 
out any loss of honor whatever — we emerged from it gloriously. 

In every Indian war — and we have been engaged in many of them — our 
armies have triumphed ; and without speaking at all as to the causes of the 
recent war with Mexico, whether it was right or wrong, and abstaining 
from any exjn'ession of opinion as to the justice or propriety of the war, 
when once commence 1 all must admit that, with respect to the gallantry 
of our ai'inies, the glory of oui' triumphs, there is no page or ])nges of his- 
tory which record more brilliant successes. AVith respect to one com- 
mander of an important portion of our army I need say nothing here ; no 
praise is necessary in behalf of one who has been elevated by tlie voice of 
his country to the highest station she could place him in, mainlv on ac- 
count of his glorious military career. And of another, less fortunate in 
many respects than some other military commanders, I must take the op- 
portunity of saying, that f )r skill, for science, for strategy, for abilitv, and 
daring lighting, fur clii\alry of individuals and of masses, that portion of 
the American army which was conducted by the gallant Scott, as the chief 
commander, stands unrivaled either by the deeds of (^ortez himself, or by 
those of any other commander in ancient or modern times. 

Sir, our prosperity is unbounded — nay, Mr. President, I sometimes fear 
that it is in the wantonness of that prosperity that many of the threaten- 
ing ills of the moment have arisen. Wild and erratic schemes have sprung 
up throughout the whole country, some of which have even found their 
way into legislative halls; and there is a restlessness existing among us 
which I fear will require the chastisement of'IIeaven to bring us back to a 
sense of the immeasurable benefits and blessings which have been bestowed 
upon us by Providence. At this moment — with the exception of here and 
there a particular department in the manufacturing business of the coun- 
try — all is prosperity and jieace, and the nation is rich ainl powerful. Our 
country has grown to a magnitude, to a power and greatness, such as to 
command the respect, if it does not awe the apprehensions, of the powers 
of the earth, with whom we come in contact. 

Sir, do I depict with colors too lively the prosperity which has resulted 
to us from the operations of this Union I Uave I exaggerated in any par- 
ticular her power, her prosperity, or her greatness ? And now, sir, let me 
go a little into detail with resj»ect to sway in the councils of the nation, 
whether from the North or the South, during the sixty years of unparalleled 
prospeiity that we have enjoyed. During the first twelve years of the ad- 
ministration of the Government Northern counsels rather jirevailed ; and 
out of them sprang the Uank of the United Stales, the assunqttion of the 
State debt««, bounties to the fisheries, protection to oiu" domestic, manufac- 
tures — T allude to the act of 1789 — neutrality in the wars of Euro]>e, Jay's 
treaty, the alien and sedition laws, and war with France. I do not say, sir, 
that these, the leading and ])rominent measures which were adopted during 
the administrations of Washington and the elder Adams, were carried ex- 
clusively by Nc>rthern counsels — they could not have been — but mainly by 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 341 

the fiscendency wliicli Xorthcrn counsels had obtained in tlie affairs of (he 
nation. 80, sir, of the later period —for the last fifty years. 

I do not mean to say that Southern counsels alone have carried the 
mea-iures which I am about to emimi^i'ate. I know they could not exclus- 
ively have cirried them, but 1 say that they have been carried by their 
preponderatins; influence, with the co-operation, it is true — the large co- 
operation iu some instances — of the Northern section of the Union. And 
what are those measures ? Durinif that fif.y years, or nearly that period, 
in whieh Southern counsels have preponderated, the embaro-o and other 
connnorcial restrictions of non-intercourse and non-importation were im- 
pose<l ; war »i(h Great Hiitain, the I^ank of the United States overthrown, 
protvetion enlarged and ext(Mided to domestic manufactures — I allude to 
the passage of the act of 1815 or 1816 — the Bank of the United States 
re-established, the same baidv put down, re-established bv Southr-rn coun- 
sels and put down by Southern counsels, Louisiana acquired, Florida bought, 
Texas annexed, war with Mexico, California and other territories acquired 
from Mexico by conquest and purchase, ]irotection superseded, and free 
trade established, Indians removed west of the Missi'^sippi, and fifteen new 
States admitted into the Union. It is very possible, sir, that in this eim- 
meration I may have omitted some of the important measures wdiich have 
been adopted dunng this later period of time — the last fifty years — but 
these I believe to be the most prominent ones. 

Now, sir, I do not deduce from the enumeration of the measures adopted 
by the one side or the other any just cause of reproach either upon one 
side or the other ; thougli one side or the other has predominated in the 
two periods to which I have referred. These measures were, to say the 
least, the joint work of both parties, and neither of them have any just 
cause to reproach the other. But, sir, I must say, in all kindness and sin- 
cerity, that least of all ought the South to I'eproach the North, when we 
look at the long list of mettsures which, under her sway in the counsels of 
the nation, have been adopted ; when we reflect that even opposite doc- 
trines have been from time to time advanced by her ; that.-thc estal>lish- 
ment of the Bank of the United States, which was done under the admin- 
istration of Mr. Madison, met with the co-operation of the South — I do not 
say the whole South — I do not, when I speak of the South or the North, 
speak of the entire South or the entire North ; I speak of the pron)inent 
and lager proportion of Southein and Northern men. It was during Mr. 
Madison's administration that the Bank of the United States was established. 
My fiiend, whose sit-kness — which I veiy much deplore — prevents us from 
having his attenilance upon tliis occasion (Mr. Calhoun), was the chairman 
of the committee, and carried the measure throuirh Contrress. I voted for 
It wiih all my heart. Although I had been instrumental with other Southern 
votes in putting down the Bank of the United States, I (dianged my opinion 
and co-operated in the establishment of the Bank of 18 IG. The same 
baidc was again put down by Southern counsels, wntli General Jackson at 
their head, at a later period. Again, with lespect to the policy of protec- 
tion. The South in 1815 — I mean the prominent Southern men, the 
lamented Lowndes, Mr. Calhoun, and others — united in extending a certain 
measure of protection to domestic manufactures as well as the North. 

We find a few years afterward the South interposing most serious objec- 
tions to this policy, and one member of the South, threatening on that 
occasion, a dissolution of the Union or separation. Now, sir, let us take 
another view of the question — and I would remark that all these \news are 
brought forward not in a spirit of reproach, but of conciliation — not to 



342 SPEECH ON THE 

provoke or exa.s]->erate, but to quift, to produce liarmony and repose, if pos- 
sible. "What liave been the terntorial acquisition? made by this country, 
and to what interests have they conduced ^ Florida, where slavery exists, 
has b./.-n introduced; Louisiana, or all the most valuable part of tliat State 
— for a!th<>u:,di there is a laro:e extent of territory north of the line 3G'' 30', 
in point of intrinsic value and importance, I would not G:ive the single State 
of Louisiana for the whole of it — all Louisiana. I say, with the exception of 
that which lies north of 36^ 30', including Oregon, to which we obtained 
title niaiuly on the i^round of its being a part of the acquisition of Louis- 
iana ; all Texas ; all the territoi-ies which have been acquired by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States during its sixty years' oi»eration have been 
shave territories, the theater of slavery, A"ith the exception that I have men- 
tioned of that lying north of tlie line 36° 30'. 

And here, in'the case of a war made essentially by tlie South — growing 
out of the annexation of Texas, which was a measure p:oi)osed by the South 
in the councils of the country, and which led to the war with Mexico — I 
do not say all of the South, but the major ]iortion of the South pressed the 
annexation of Texas upon the country — that measure, as I have said, led 
to the war with ^lexico, and the war with Mexico led to the acquisition of 
those territories which now constitute the bone of contention between the 
difterent membei-s of the Confedei-acy. And now, sir, for the fii-st time 
after the three great acquisitions of Texas, Florida, and Louisiana have been 
made and have redounded to the benefit of the South — now, for the first 
time, wlien three territories are attempted to be introduced without the in- 
stituion of slavery, I put it to the hearts of my countrymen of tlie South, 
if it is right to press matters to the disastrous consequences which have 
been indicated no longer ago than this very morning, on the occasion of 
the ] presentation of certain n solutions — even extending to a dissolution of 
the Union. i\Ir. President, I can not believe it. 

;Mr. Underwood — Will the Senator give way for an adjournment ? 
;Mr. Ci-AY — Oh, no ; if I do not weary the ]>atience of the Senate, I pre- 
fer to go on. I think I can begin to see land. I shall soon come to the 
conclusion of what I have to say. Such is the Union, and such are the 
gloiious fruits which are now threatened with subversion and destruction. 
Well, sir, the first question which naturally arises is, supposing the Union 
to be dissolved for any of the causes or grievances which are complained 
of, how tar will dissolution furnish a remedy for those grievances ? If the 
Union is to be dissolved for any existing cause, it will be because slavery is 
interdicted or not allowed to be introdii/ed into the ceded territories; or 
because slavery is threatened to be abolished in the District of Columbia ; 
or because fugitive slaves are not restored, as in my opinion they ouuht to 
be, to their niiastei-s. These, I believe, would be the c:iuses, if there be any 
causes which can lead to the di-eadfiil event to which I have referred. Let 
us suppose the Union dissolved ; what remedy does it, in a severeii state, 
furnish tor the grievances (•oni])lained of in iis united condition ? AVill you 
be able at the South to jaish slavery into the ceded territory? How are 
you to do it, supposing tlie North, or all the States north of the I'otomac, 
in possession of the navy and army of the United States? Can you^ ex- 
pect, I say, under these circuinstaiices, that if there is a dissolution of the 
Union you can carry slavery into California and New Mexico ? Sir, you 
can not dream of such an occurrence. 

If it were abolished in the District of Ct.lumbia and the Union were dis- 
solved, would the dissolution of the Union restore slavery in the District of 
Columbia? Is vour eliance for the recovcrv of voiir fugitive slaves safer 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 343 

in a state of dissolution or ot" severance of tlie Union than when in the 
Union itself? Why, sir, what is the state of the fact? .Tn the Union you 
lose some slaves and recover others ; hut here let me revert to a fact which 
I ouglit to have noticed before, because it is highly creditable to the courts 
and juries of the free States. In every instance, as far as my information 
extends, in which an appeal has been made to the courts of justice to 
recover penalties from those who have assisted in decoying slaves from 
their masters — in every instance, as far as I have heard, the court has as- 
serted the rights of tlie owner, and the jury has promptly returned an 
adequate verdict on his beh.-ilf. Well, sir, there is then some remedy while 
you are a part of the Union fur the recovery of your slaves, and some iu- 
demnilication for their loss. What would you have, if the Union was 
severed ? Why, then the several parts w^ould be independent of each 
other — foreign countries — and slaves escaping from one to the other would 
be like slaves escaping from the United States to Canada. There would 
be no right of extradition, no right to demand your slaves ; no right to 
appeal to the courts of justice to indemnify you for the loss of your slaves. 
Where one slave escapes now by running away from his master, hundreds 
and thousands would escape if the Union were dissevered — I care not how 
or where you run the line, or whether independent sovereignties be es- 
tixblished. Well, sir, finally, will you, in case of a dissolution of the Union, 
be sailer with your slaves within the separated portions of the States than 
you are now ? Mr. President, that they will escape much more frec|uently 
fi-om the border States no one will deny. 

And, sir, I must take occasion here to say that in my opinion there is 
no right on the part of any one or more of the States to secede from the 
Union. War and dissolution of the Union are identical and inevitable, in 
my opinion. There can be a dissolution of the Union only by consent or 
by war. Consent no one can anticipate, from any existing state of things, 
is likely to be given, and war is the only alternative by which a dissolution 
could be accomplished. If consent were given — if it were possible that 
we were to be separated by one great line — in less than sixty days after 
such consent was given war would break out between the slavehoMing and 
non-slaveholding portions of this Union — between the two independent 
parts into which it would be erected in virtue of the act of separation. In 
less than sixty days, I believe, our slaves from Kentucky, flocking over in 
numbers to the other side of the river, would be pursued by their owners. 
Our hot and ardent s})irits would be restrained by no sense of the right 
■which appertains to the independence of the other side of the river, should 
that be the line of separation. They would pursue their slaves into the 
adjacent free States ; they would be repelled, and the consequence would 
be that, in less than sixty days, war would be blazing in every part of this 
now happy and peaceful land. 

And, sii-, how are you going to separate the States of this Confederacy? 
In mv humble opinion, Mr. President, we should begin with at least three 
separate Confederacies. There would be a Confederacy of the North, a 
Confederacy of thu Southern Atlantic slaveholding States, and a Confederacy 
of the valley of the Alississijypi. My life ui)on it, that the vast population 
which has already concentrated and will concentrate on the head-waters 
and the tributaries of the Mississippi will never give their consent that the 
mouth of that river shall be hold subject to the ]:)Ower of any foreign State 
or community whatever. Such, I believe, would be the consequences of a 
dissolution of the Union, immediately ensuing; but other Confederacies 
would spring up from time to time, as dissatisfaction and discontent were 



344 SPEECH ON THE 

disseminated throughout the country — the Confederacy of the lakes, per- 
liaps the Confederacy of New England, or of the middle States. Ah, sir, 
the vail whicjli covers these sa I ami disastrous events that lie beyond it, is 
too thick to be penetrated or hfted by any mortal eye or hand. 

Mr. President, I am directly opposed to any purpose of secession or 
separation. I am for staying within the Union, and di^fying any portion 
of this Confeleracy to expel me or drive me out of the Union. I am for 
staying within the Union and fighting for my rights, if necessary, with the 
sword, within the bounds and un<ler the safeguard of the Union. I am for 
vindicating those rights, not by being driven out of the Union harshly and 
unceremoniously by any portion of this Confederacy. Here I am within 
it, and here I mean to stand and die, as far as my individual wishes or pur- 
poses can go — within it to protect my jiroperty and defend myself, defying 
all the power on earth to expel me or drive me from the situation in Avhich 
I am placed. And would there not be more safety in fighting within the 
Union than out of it? Sui)pose your rights to be violated, sujjpose wrong 
to be done you, aggressions to be perpetrated upon you, can you not bet- 
ter vindicate them — if you have occasion to resort to the hvst necessity, the 
sword, for a restoration of those rights — within, and with the sympathies 
of a large portion of the po]iulation of the Union, than by being without 
the Union, when a large portion of the population have symi>atliies adverse 
to your own ? You can vindicate your rights within the Union better 
than if expelled from the Union, and driven from it without ceremony and 
without authority. 

Sir, I have said that I thought there was no right on the part of one or 
more States to secede from the Union. I think so. The Constitution of 
the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, 
but for posterity — unlimited, undetined, endless, perpetual posterity. And 
every State that then came into the Union, and every State that has since 
come into the Union, came into it binding itself, by indissoluble bands, to 
remain within the Union itself, and to remain within it by its posterity 
forever. Like another of the sacred connections, in private life, it is a 
marriage which no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties 
from. And if 1 may be allowed to refer to some examples in private life, 
let me say to the North and to the South, what husband and wife say to 
each other. We have mutual iaults; neither of us is peifect; nothing in 
the form of humanity is perfect; let us, then, be kind to each other — for- 
beaiing, forgiving each other's faults — and above all, let us live in hapj>ines3 
and peace together. 

Mr. President, I have said, what I solemnly believe, that dissolution of 
the Union and war are identical and inevitable; and they are convertible 
terms ; and such a war as it would be, following a dissolution of the Union ! 
Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so ferocious, so bloody, 
so implacable, so exterminating — not even the wars of (ireece, including 
thiise of the Commoners of England and the revolutions of Franco — none, 
none of them all would rage with sueli violence, or be characterized with 
such bloodshed and enormities as woidd the war which must succeed, if 
that event ever hai)j)ens, tlie dissolution of the Union. And what would 
be its termination ? Standing armies, and navies, to an extent stretching 
the revemies of each portion of the dissevered members, would take place. 
An ext-Miiiinaling war woulil follow — not, sir, a war of two or three years' 
duration, but a war of interminable <luration — and exterminating Avars 
would ensue, until, after the struggles and exhaustion of both parties, some 
Philip or Alexander, some Caisar or Napoleon, would arise and cut the 



COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS, 845 

Gordian knot, and solve the problem of the capacity of man for self-gov- 
ernment, and crush the liberties of both the severed portions of this com- 
mon empire. Can you doubt it ? 

Look at all history — consult her pages, ancient or modern — look at 
human nature ; look at the contest in which you would be engaged in the 
supposition of war following upon the dissolution of the Union, such as I 
have suggested ; and I ask y" if it is possible for you to doubt that the 
final disposition of the whole would be some despot treading down the 
liberties of the people — the final result would be the extinction of this last 
and glorious light which is leading a!) mankind, who are gazing upon it, 
in the hope and anxious expectation that the liberty which jirevaiis here 
■will sooner or later be ditiused throughout the whole of the civilized world. 
Sir, can you lightly contemplate tln'se consequences ? Can you yield 
yourself to the tyranny of passion, amid dangers which I have depicted in 
colors far too tame of what the result would be if that direful event to 
which I have referred should ever occur? Sir, I implore gentlemen, I ad- 
jure them, whether from the South or the North, by all that they hold 
dear in this world — by all their love of liberty — by all their veneration for 
their ancestors — by all their regard for posterity — by all their gi'atitude to 
nim who has bestowed on thorn such unnumbered and countless blessings 
— by all the duties wliicli they owe to mankind — and by all the duties 
which they owe to themselves, to pause, solemnly to pause at the edge of 
the precipice, before the fearful and dangerous leap be taken into the yawn- 
ing abyss below, from which none who ever take it shall return in safety. 

Finally, Mr. President, and in conclusion, I implore, as the best blessing 
which Heaven can bestow upon me, upon earth, that if the direful event 
of the dissolution of this Union is to happen, I shall not survive to behold 
the sad and heart-rending spectacle. 



NOTE B.— Page 153. 



MB. CLAY TO RICHARD PINDELL. 

New Orleans, February 17th, 1849. 

My Dear Sir — Inclosed I transmit the letter which I promised .before 
I left home, on the subject of Emancipation. It has been prepared under 
very unfavorable circumstances, -while I have been suft'eriuo: from the eti'ects 
of a violent fall, which disabled me for a time from walkini,' or writini;. 
This is the first and only draught of the letter. I wish it published in the 
Observer and Reporter, and as I desire it to be correctly {)ublished, if you 
can not attend to the revisal of the proof sheets, I wish you wouM ask 
Jude;e Trotter to do ine that favor. I do not know that James has returned 
home. 

You will see from tlie concludinc^ parao;raphs of my letter that I liave 
no contidence in any hopes of success. But notwithstanding I think I am 
under some obligation to give pubhcity to my opinions. 



MR. CLAY TO RICHARD PIXDELL. 

New Orleans, February 17tb, 1S49. 

Dear Sir — Piior to my departure from home in December last, in be- 
half of yourself and other friends, you obtained from me a promise to make 
a public exposition of my views and ojnnions upon a grave and important 
question which, it was then anticipated, would be much debated and con- 
sidered by the people of Kentucky, during this year, in consequence of the 
approaching Convention, suminoui'd to amend their present Constitution. 
I was not entirely well when I left home, and owing to that cause, and my 
confinement several weeks, during my sojourn in this city, from the etfects 
of an accident which befell luc, 1 have been delayed in the fulfillment of my 
]iroinis(', wliich I now ])ro('ee.l to execute. 

Tilt' (pics! ion, to which 1 allude, is whether African slavery, as it now 
exists in Kentucky, shall be left to a perpetual or indefinite continuance, or 
sonic provision shall be made in the new Constitution, for its cnulual and 

.... ' O 

ultmiate extinction ; 

A few general obsel'vations will sullicc my present ]iurpose, without en- 
tering on the whole subject of slavery, under all its bearings an<l in every 
aspect of it. I am aware that there are respectable j>ersons who believe 
that slavery is a blessing, that the institution onglit to exist in every well 
organizeil society, and that it is even favorable to the ])reservation of liberty. 
Happily, the nnmlier wlm entertain these extravaLi'ant opinions is not veiy 
great, and the time wtuild be uselessly occupied in an elaborate refutation 
of them. 1 WMiil.i, however, remark that if slavery be promotive of these 
alleged benefits, tiie })rinciple, on which it is maintained, would require 



LETTER ON EMANCIPATION. 347 

that one portion of the ^\■llole race should be reducetl to bondage to serve 
another jjortion of the same i-ace, when black subjects of slavery could not 
be obtained ; and that in Afiica, where they may entertnin as jrrcat a pret- 
erence for their color as we do fur ours, tluy would be justiHed in ri'ducing 
the white r;i(;e to slavery, in order to secure tlie blessini^s which that state 
is said to ditluse. 

An aro'unient in support of reducin<^ the African race to slavery, is some- 
times derived frnin their allei^ed inteilectuiil inferiority to the white races; 
but, if this argument be founded on fact (as it may be, but which I shall 
not now examine), it woul I prove entirely too much. It would prove that 
anv white nation which had made jrreater advances in civilization, knowl- 
edge and wisdom than another white nation, would have a right to reduce 
the latter to a state of bondage. Nay, further, if the ])rinciple of subjuga- 
tion, founded upon intellectual superiority, be true, and be applicable to 
races and to nations, what is to prevent its being applied t<j individuals? 
And then the wisest man in the world would have a ri<>ht to make slaves 
of all the rest of maidcind ! 

If indeed we possess this intellectual superioritv, prot'ouuilly grateful and 
thankful to HIM who has bestowed it, we ought to fultiil all the oldigations 
and duties which it imposes; and these would require us not to subjugate 
or deal unjustly by our fellow men who are less blessed than we are, but 
to instruct, to improve, and to enlighten them. 

A vast majority of the people of the United States, in eveiy section of 
them, I Itelieve, regret the introduction of slaveiy into the colonies, under 
the authoiity of our British ancestors, lament that a simple slave treads our 
soil, deplore the necessity of the continuance of slavery in any of the States, 
regard the institution as a gieat evil to both races, and would rejoice in 
the adoption of any safe, just, and practicable plan for the removal of all 
slaves from among us. Hitherto no such satisfactory plan has been pre- 
sented. When, on the occasion of the formation of the present Constitution 
of Kentucky, in 1*799, the question of the gradual emancipation of slavery 
in that State was agitated, its friends ha<l to encounter a great obstacle, in 
the fact that there then existed no established colony, to which they could 
be transported. Now, by the successful establishment of Nourishing colo- 
nies on the western coast of x\friea, that dillieuhy has been obviated. And I 
confess that, without indulging in any undue feelings of superstition, it 
does seem to me that it may have been among the dispensations of Provi- 
dence to permit the wrongs, umler which Africa has suffered, to bo inflicted, 
that her children might be returned to their original home, civilized, em- 
bued with the benign spirit of Christianity, and prepared ultimately to 
redeem that great continent from barbarism and idolatry. 

Without undertaking to judge for any other State, it was my opinion in 
1799 that Kentucky was in a condition to admit of the gradual emancipa- 
tion of her slaves ; and how deeply do I lament that a system, with that 
object, had not been then established ! If it had been, the State would 
now be nearly rid of all slaves. My opinion has never changed, and I 
have frequently pnbliely exjtressed it. I should be most happy if what 
was impracticable at that epoch could now l)e accomplished. 

After full and deliberate consideration of the subject, it appears to me 
that three principles should regulate the establishment of a system of 
gradual emancipation. The first is, that it should be slow in its operation, 
cautious, and gradual, so as to occasion no convulsion, nor any rash or 
sudden disturbance, in the existing habits of society. Secondly, that, as an 
indispensable condition, the emancipated slaves should be removed from 



848 LETTERS ON EMANCIPATION. 

the State to some colony. And, thirdly, that the expenses of their transpor- 
tation to such colony, including an outfit for six months after their arrival 
at it, should be defrayed by a t'uiid to be raised from the labor of each 
freed sla\ e. 

1. Nothing could be more- unwise than the immediate liberation of all 
the slaves in the State, comprehending both sexes and all ages, from that 
of tender infancy to extreme old age. It would lead to the most fiiglitful 
disorders and the most feaiful and fatal consequences. Any great cliange 
in the condition of society should be marked by extreme care and circum- 
spection. The introduction of slaves into the colonies was an operation of 
many years' duration ; and the work of their removal from the United 
States can only he effected after the lapse of a great length of time. 

I think that a period should be fixed when all born after it shouM be 
free at a specified age, all born before it remaining slaves for life. That 
period I would suggest should be 1855, or even 1860; for on this and. 
other arrangements of the system, if adopted, I incline to a liberal margin, 
so as to ol>viate as many objections, and to unite as many opinions as pos- 
sible. Wlie'iher the commencement of the operation of the system be a 
little earlier or later, is not so important as that a day should be perma- 
nently /fVcf/, from which we could look forward, with confidence, to the final 
termination of slavery, within the limits of the Commonwealth. 

Whatever may be the day fixed, whether 1855, or 1860, or any other 
day, all born after it, I suggest, should be free at the age of twenty-live, but 
be liable afterward to be hired out, under the authority of the State, for a 
term not exceeding three yeais, in order to raise a sum sufficient to pay 
the expenses of the transportation to the colony, and to provide them an 
outfit for six months after flu-ir arrival there. 

If the descendants of those who were themselves to be free, at the age of 
twenty-five, were also to be considered as slaves until they attained the same 
age, and this i-ule were continued indefinitely as to time, it is manifest that 
slavery would be perpetuated instead of being terminated. To gunrd against 
this consequence, provision might be made that the offspiing of those who 
were to be free at twenty-five, should be free from their birth, but upon the 
condition that they should be a])prentice(l until they were twenty-one, and 
be also afterward liable to be hirc(l out, a period not exceeding three years, 
for the purpose of raising funds to meet their expenses to the colony and 
their sul)sistetice for the first six months. 

The IVnnsylvania system of emancipation fixed the period of twenty- 
eight for the liberation of the slaves, and provided, or her courts have since 
interpreted the system to mean, that the issue of all who were to be free at 
the limited age, were from their birth free. The I'ennsylvania system made 
no ])n)vision for colonization. 

Until the commencement of the system, which I am endeavoring to 
sketch, I think all the legal rights of the jiroprietors of slaves, in their full- 
est extent, ought to remain uninq)aired and unrestricted. Consequently 
they would have the right to sell, devise, or remove them from the State, 
and, in the latter case, \\ithowt their otVspring being entitled to the benefit 
of emancipation, for which the system j)rovitles. 

2d. The colonization of the free blacks, as they successively arrive, from 
year to ytar, at the age entitling them to freedom, I consider a condition 
absolutely iiidis|)ensable. Without it, I should be utterly opposed to any 
scheme of cmaiiiip.-ition. One liundreil and ninety odd thousand blacks, 
composing about one fourth of the entire population of the State, with 
thi'ir dcsicndants, could never live in peace, harmony, and equality with 



ON EMANCIPATION. 349 

the residue of the population. The color, passions, an<l projudieos would 
forever prevent the two races from liviii"- toirether in a state of cordial 
union. Social, moral and political dcirnidation would be the inevilahlc lot 
of the colored race. Even in the free States (I use the terms free and slave 
States not in any sense dcroi;atory from one class, or implyinrr any superi- 
ority in the other, but for the sake of brevity), that is their })resent condi- 
tion. In some of the free States the penal Icijislation against the peo]>le 
of color is quite as severe, if not harshei-, than it is in some of the slave 
States. As nowhere in the United States are amalgamation and equality 
between the two races possible, it is better that there should be a separa- 
tion, and that the African descendants should be returned to the native 
land of their fathers. 

It will have been seen that the plan I have suggested proposes the an- 
nual transportation of all born after a specified day, upon their arrival at 
the prescribed age, to the colony which may be selected for their destina- 
tion ; and, that this process of transportation is to be continued until the 
separation of the two races is completed. If the emanci]>ated slaves were 
to remain in Kentucky until they attained the age of twenty-eight, it would 
be about thirty-four years before the first annual transportation began, if 
the svstem commences in 1855, and about thirty-nine years, if its operation 
begins in 1860. 

What the number thus to be annually transported would be, can not be 
precisely ascertained. I observe it stated by the auditor that the increase 
of slaves in Kentucky last year was between three and four thousand. But 
as that statement was made upon a comparison of the aggregate number 
of all the slaves in the State, without regard to births, it does not, I presume, 
exhibit truly the natural increase, which was probably larger. The aggre- 
gate was atiected by the introduction and still more by the exportation of 
slaves. I suppose tJiat there would not be less, probably more, than five 
thousand to be transported the first year of the operation of the system; 
but, after it should be in progress some years, there would be a constant 
diminution of the number. 

Would it be practicable annually to transport five thousand persons from 
Kentucky ? There can not be a doubt of it, or even a much larger number. 
We receive from Europe annually emigrants to an amount exceeding two 
hundred and fifty thousand, at a cost for the passage of about ten dollars 
per head, and they embaik at Eui-opean ports more distant from the United 
States than the western coast of Atiica. It is true that the commercial 
marine, employed betwecTi Europe and the United States aftbrds facilities, 
in the transportation of emigrants, at that low rate, which that engaged in 
the commerce between Liberia and this country does not now supply; but 
that commerce is increasing, and by the time the proposed systeni, if 
adopted, would go into operation, it will have greatly augmented. If there 
were a certainty of the annual transportation of not k-ss than five thousand 
persons to Africa, it would create a demand for transports, and the spirit 
of competition would, I have no doubt, greatly diminish the present cost 
of the passage. That cost has been stated, upon gool anthuiity, to be at 
present fifty "dollars per head, including the passage and six months' outfit 
after the arrival of the emigrant in Africa. Wliatever may be the cost, 
and whatever the number to be transported, the fund to be raised by the 
hire of the liberated slave, for a period not exceeding three years, will be 
amply sufficient. The annual hire, on the average, may be estimated at 
liftv dollars, or one hundred and fifty for the whole term. 

Colonization will be attended with the painful eifect of the separation of 



350 MR, clay's letter 

the colonists from their parents, and in some instances from their chilaren; 
but from the hitter it will be only temporary, as they will follow and be 
again reunited. Their separation from their parents will not be until after 
they have attained a mature a<:{e, nor greater than voluntarily takes jilace 
with emigrants fium P'urope, who leave their parents behind. It will l>e 
far le.«s distressing than what frequently occurs in the state of slavery, and 
will be attended with the animating encouragement that the colonists are 
transferred from a land of bondage and degradation, for them, to a land of 
liberty and equality. 

And 3d. The expense of transporting the liberated slave to the colony, 
and of maintaining him there for six months, I think, ought to be provided 
for by a fund dcrivcl from his labor, in the manner already indicated. 
He is the party most benefited by emancipation. It would not be right to 
subject th<' non-slaveholder to any part of that expense; and the slave- 
holder will have made sufBcient sacrifices, without being exclusively bur- 
dened with taxes to raise that fund. The emancipated slaves could be 
hired out for the time proposed, by the Sheriti" or other public agent, in 
each county, who should be subject to a strict accountability. And it 
would be requisite that there should be kept a register of all births of 
children of color, after the day fixed for the commencement of the system, 
enibrced bv a}i]")ropriate sanctions. It would be a very desirable regulation 
of law to have the births, deaths, and marriages of th(.' whole population of 
the State registered and preserved, as is done in most well governed States. 

Among other considerations which unite in recommending to the State 
of Kentucky a system for the gradual abolition of slavery, is that arising 
out of her exposed condition, atlording great facilities to the escape of her 
slaves into the free States and into Canada. She does not enjoy the security 
which some of the slave States have, by being covered in depth by two or 
three slave States, intervening between them and free States. She has a 
greater length of border on tree States than any other slave State in the 
Union. That Imrder is the Ohio river, extending from the mouth of Big 
Stuidy to the mouth of the Ohio, a distance of near six hundred miles, 
separating her from the already powerful and growing States of Ohio, In- 
diana, and Illinois. A'ast numbers of slaves have fled from most of the 
counties in Kentucky, from the mouth of the Big Sandy to the mouth of 
the Miami, and the evil has increased and is increasing. Attempts to re- 
cover the fugitives lead to the most painful and irritating collisions. Hither- 
to ciiuntenaiice and assistance to the fugitives have been chiefly afl'orded 
by persons in the State of Ohio ; but it is to be apprehended, tVom the 
progressive opposition to slavery that, in process of time, similar facilities 
to the escape of slaves will be found in the States of Indiana and Illinois. 
By means of railroads, C-anaila can be reached from Cincinnati in a little 
more than twenty-four hours. 

In the event of a civil war breaking out, or in the more direful event of 
a dissolution of the Union, in consequence of the existence of slavery, 
Kentiieky wnuhl become the theater and bear the brunt of the war. She 
would dunbtless defend herself with her known valor and ijallantrv ; but 
the siiperionty of the numbers by which she Avould be opposed would lay 
witste and devastate her fair fields. Her sister slave States would fly to 
Lcr succor; but, even if they should be successful in the imequal conllict, 
she never could obtain any indemnity for the inevitable ravages of the war. 

It may be urged that we ought not, by the gratlual abolition of slavery. 
to se])Mrato ourselves from the other slave States, but continue to share with 
th.'Mi in all (heir future fortunes. The power of each slave State, within its 



ON EMANCIPATION. 351 

limits, over tlio institution of slavery, is absolute, supieme and exclusive — 
exclusive of that of Cojigress or that of any other State. The government 
of each slave State is bound by the highest and most solemn obligations 
to dispose of the question of slavery, so as best to promote the ]ieaco, hap- 
piness and i)r(..si)erity of the people of the State. Kentucky being essen- 
tially a farming State, slave-labor is less profitable. If in most of the other 
slave States they find that labor more profitable, in the culture of the staples 
of cotton and siigar, they nuxy perceive a reason in that fact for continuing 
slavery, which can not be expected should control the judgment of Ken- 
tuckyas to what may be fitting and proper for her interests. If she should 
abolish slavery, it v.ould be her duty, and I trust that she would be as 
ready as she liow is, to defend the slave States in the enjoyment of all their 
lawful and constitutional rights. Her power, political and physical, would 
be ijreatly increased; for the one hundred and ninety odd thousand slaves 
and their descendants, would be gradually sui)erseded by an equal number 
of white inhabitants, who would be estimated per cajnta, and not by the 
federal rule of three fifths prescribed for the colored race in the Constitu- 
tion of tl'.e United States. 

I have thus, without resei-ve, freely expressed my opinion and presented 
my views. The interesting subject of which I have treated would have 
admitted of much enlargement; but I have desired to consult brevity. 
The plan which I have proposed will hardly be accused of being too early 
in its commencement or too rapid in its operation. It will be more likely 
to meet with contrary reproaches. If adopted, it is to begin thirty-four or 
thirty-nine years tVoiii the time of its adoption, as the one period or the 
other shall" be selected for its commencement. How long a time it will 
take to remove all the colored race from the State, by the annual trans- 
portation of each year's natural increase, can not be exactly ascertained. 
After the svsteni may have been in operation some years, I think it probable, 
from the manifest benefits that Avouid flow from it, from the diminished 
value of slave hibor, and from the humanity and benevolence of private 
individuals prompting a liberation of their slaves and their tiansportation, 
a o'eneral disposition would exist to accelerate and complete the work of 
colonization. 

That the system will be attended with some sacrifices on the ]iart of 
slavchoMers, which are to be regretted, need not be denied. What great 
and beneficent enterprise was ever accomplished without ri-^k and sacrifice i 
But these sacrifices are distant, contingent and inconsiderable. Assuming 
the year 18G0 foi- the commencement of the system, all slaves born {>rior 
to that time would remain such dunng their lives, and the present loss of 
the slaveholder would be only the ditference in value of a female slave 
whose oti'spring, if she had any, born after the first day of January, 1860, 
should he freest the age of twenty-five or should be slaves for life. In 
the mean time, if the right to remove or sell the slave out of the State, 
should be exercised, that trifling loss would not be incurred. The slave- 
holder, after the commencement of the system, would lose the diflerence 
in value between slaves for lite and slaves until the age of twenty-five. lie 
miirht also incur some inconsideiable expense in reanng from their birth 
the issue of those wdio were to be free at twenty-five, until they were old 
enough to be apprenticed out ; but as it is probable that they would be 
most o-enerallv bound to him, he would receive some indemnity from tluir 
services until they attained their majority. 

Most of the evils, loss.es and misfortvuies of human life have some com- 
pensation or alleviation. The slaveholder is generally a landholder, and I 



852 3fR. CLAY OX EMANCIPATION. 

am persuaded that he would find in the augmented value of his land, some, 
if not full indemnity for los-es aiisinir to him from emanci])ation and colo- 
niz.'.tion. He would also liberally share in the general bjncfits, acciuing 
to the whole State, from the extinction of slavery. These have been so 
ofr<*ii and so fully stated that I will not, nor is it necessary to, dwell uj.-on 
them extensively. They can be summed up in a few words. We shall 
remove from among us the contaminating influences of a servile and de-, 
graded race of diti'erent color; we shall enjoy the proud and conscious 
satisfaction of placing that race where they can enjoy the great blessings 
of liberty, and sivil, political and social equality ; we shall acquire tlie ad- 
vantage of the diligence, the fidelity, and the constancy of free labor in- 
stead of the carelessness, the infidelity, and the unstea<liness of slave labor ; 
we shall elevate the character of white labor, and elevate the social con- 
dition of the white laborer; augment the value of our lands, improve the 
agriculture of the State, attract capital from abroad to all the pursuits of 
commerce, manufactures and agriculture ; redress, as far and as fast as 
we safely and prudently can, any wrongs which the descendants of Africa 
have suifered at our bauds, and we should demonstrate the sincerity with 
which we pay indiscriminate homage to the great cause of the liberty of 
the human race. 

Kentucky enjoys high respect and lionorable consideration througliout 
the Union and throughout the civilized world; but, in my humbk' opinion, 
no title which she has to the esteem and admiration of mankind, no deeds 
of her former glory would ecpial in greatness and grandeur, that of being 
the ])ione<,'r State in removing from her soil every trace of human slavery, 
and in establishing the descendants of Africa, within her jurisdiction, in the 
native land of their forefathers. 

1 have thus executed the promise I made, alluded to in the commence- 
ment of this letter, and I hope that I have done it calmly, free from intem- 
perance, and so as to wound the sensibilities of none. I sincerely hope 
that the question may be considered and decided without the influence of 
j)arty or jiassion. I should be most happy to have the good ft>rtune of 
coinciding in opinion with the majority of the people of Kentucky; but, 
if there be a majority o})posed to all schemes of gradual emancipation, 
however much I may regret it, my duty will be to bow in submission to 
their will. If it be perfectly certain and manifest that such a majority 
exists, I should think it better not to agitate the question at all, since that, 
in that ca^^e, it would be useless, and might exercise a pernicious collateral 
iiitlueiice upon the fair consideration of other amendments which may be 
proposed to our Constitution. If there be a majority of the people of 
ICentucky, at this time, adverse to touching the institution of slavery, as it 
now exists, we, who had thought and wislied otherwise, can only indulge 
the hope that at some future time, under better auspices and with the 
blessing of Providence, the cause which we have so much at heart, may be 
attended with better success. 

In any event, I shall have the satisfjiction of having performed a duty 
to the State, to the subject, and to myself, by placing my sentiments per- 
manently upon record. 



NOTE C— Page 154. 



February 20, 1850. In Senate, Mr. Clay, in the debate on 
his Compromise resohitions, said : 

" From the earliest moment when I could consider the institution of 
slavery, I liave held, and I have said, from that day down to the present, 
again and aijaiii, and I shall go to the grave with the opinion, that it is an 
evil, a social and political evil, and that it is a wrong as it respects those 
who are subject to the institution of slavery. These are my opinions. I 
quarrel with no man for holding contrary opinions ; and it is perfectly true, 
tliat, in my own State, about this time last year, I addressed a letter to a 
friend, in which I suggested those opinions, and sketched out what ap- 
peared to me might be a practicable plan for the gradual emancipation of 
slavery in Kentucky. That letter I chose to put on record I knew at 
the moment that I wrote that letter at New Orleans, as well as I kuow at 
this moment, that a majority of the people of Kentucky would not adopt 
my scheme, or probably any project whatever of gradual emancipation. 
Perfectly well did I know it ; but I was anxious that, if any one of my pos- 
terity, or any human being who comes after me, should have occasion to 
look into my sentiments, and ascertain what they were on this great insti- 
tution of slavery, to put them on record then ; and ineffectual as I saw the 
project would be, I felt it was a duty Avhich I owed to myself, to truth, to 
my country, and to my God, to record my sentiments. The State of Ken- 
tucky has decided as I anticipated she would do. I regret it ; but I ac- 
quiesce in her decision." 

As will he seen, the above extract is a pertinent addendum to 

the preceding letter on the gradual abolition of slavery in the 

State of Kentucky, and it expresses Mr. Clay's feelings on the 

evils of slavery in the strongest manner, declaring with great 

solemnity, that his letter to Mr. Pindell, under Note B, was 

" What he owed to himself, to truth, to his country, and to 
his God." 

23 



NOTE D.— Page 181. 



The following extracts from a few of Mr. Clay's speeches, 
which were delivered from January 29, 1850, to the 31st of 
July, are intended to verify and illustrate the history given in 
chapters VI., VII., VIII., and IX., touching the Compromise of 
1850. Some of the extracts, as will be seen, are from the Com- 
mittee of Thirteen. We doubt not they will be read with interest, 
in connection with those chapters, by all who desire to become 
acquainted with the details of that last great labor of the great 
American statesman. The topic of one extract may be found 
totally disconnected with the preceding or succeeding one ; but 
each of them is connected with some portion of one of the 
chapters above referred to, as a verification or illustration. 

Mr. Clay's Resolutions of 1838. January 29, 1850, Mr. 
Clay said : 

" As I do not choose tliat what I consider a mistaken representation of 
my sentiments in 1838, should go out, I will simj^ state what they were 
tlion, and what they are now. Sir, there is not a word in that resolution 
[of 1838] that implies that any faith was pledged to the States other than 
to Virginia and to Maryland, that Congress would not abolish slavery in 
this District. The resolution says, that the agitation of the question of 
abolition by people living out of the District, is, in its tendency, dangerous 
to the slave States ; and that the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columl.ia would be just cause of alarm, not merely to Virginia and Mary- 
land, but to all the slave States; and why ? What was it that abolition 
jiroposed ? It was abolition without compensation. The assertion, there- 
fore, of opinion, which I made then, was, tliat, by the nature and objects 
of the cession of the ten miles square by Virginia and Maryland, it could 
not have been anticipated by either of these States that the power con- 
veyed to the (ieueral Government over the ten miles square, would be so 
«xerois.'d as to abolisli slavery within those States respectively ; and fui^ 
tber, that slavery continuing in Virginia and Maryland, if such an aboli- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 355 

tion were to take place witliin the District of Columbia, and without compen- 
satioa to the slaveholder, it would be a just cause of alarm to the owners 
of that description of property, wherever situated. Now, sir, that was my 
doctrine in 1838, and that is my doctrine still. 

" Sir, I do not regard the mere phraseology of the resolutions [which 
Mr. Clay had introduced that day]. I will not substitute the word ' uncon- 
stitutional' for the word ' inexpedient ;' for I do not believe it to be uncon- 
stitutional [to abolish slavery in the District]. I can not believe it. If the 
power to legislate in all cases whatever be granted to Congress, does it not 
comprehend the power to legislate on the subject of slavery ? The power 
is there. But there is an implied fjiith connected with the power, result- 
ing from the circumstances to which I have referred, imposing on Con- 
gress the obligation not to exercise the power, so long as slavery existed in 
Virginia and Maryland. And now that Virginia has taken back her part 
of the cession, such abolition may not take place without the consent of 
Maryland, nor without compensation, as I contended in 1838." 

The Compromise Line of 1820. 

" I am extremely sorry to hear the senator from Mississippi [Mr Davis] 
say, that he requires not only the extension of the Missouri Compromise 
line to the Pacific, but that he also requires a positive provision for the 
admission of slavery south of that line. This last he knows is impossible. 
And now, sir, coming from a slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe 
it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to say, that no earthly power could in- 
duce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery where 
it had not before existed, either South or North of that line. * * * 
The honorable senator from Virginia has expressed the opinion that slavery 
exists in those Territories [acquired from Mexico]. But I believe that 
slaveiy nowhere exists within any portion of those Territories. I say, sir, 
in my place, that I consider it much better for the South, that the whole 
subject should be open on both sides of an imaginary line — for instance, 
the line of 36° 30', than that slavery should be interdicted positively 
north of 36° 30', with freedom to introduce or establish slavery south of 
that line." * * * 

Plan or Treating the Resolutions. 

"My purpose [in these resolutions] is, that they shall be taken up, duly 
considereil, and decided upon ; and if any of them are decided upon affirm- 
atively, that they be^ referred to some appropriate committee, with in- 
structions to bring in a bill in pursuance of such expressions of the opinion 
of the Senate. That, as I understand, is the parliamentary course of legis- 
lation throughout the world, wherever parliaments exist. They are not, 
as the worthy senator from Texas supposes, mere abstract propositions. 
No such thing. I intended them as practical, sober propositions, with a 
^'iew to subsequent action." 



356 THK COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

The Committee of Thirteen. March 13, Mr. Clay said : 

" In rei,'arJ to the constitutioa of tlie Committee [of Thirteen], if this 
proposition should be adopted, as the senator from Mi.s.sis.sippi proposes, I 
beg leave to say a word or two. Sir, I had nothing to do with it. I was 
not consulted in relation to any member whatever to be placed upon that 
Committee. The senator from Mississippi, in that kind and friendly man- 
ner in which intercourse with him has generally been carried on, men- 
tioned the purpose which he had in view in proposing the appointment of 
a Committee of Thirteen, in imitation of what Avas done in a most memor- 
able epoch of the country [the Missouri Compromise], and asked me if I 
would concur in such a measure. I stated to him what I wish now to 
say to the Senate, that I considered an amicable adjustment of all the 
questions which unfortunately divide and agitate the country, as of such 
great and paramount importance, that I will vote for any proposition, 
coming from any quarter, which looks to or proposes such an adjustment. 
That is the object which, I understand, the honorable member from ^Missis- 
sippi proposes to accomplish. I am, I must add, at the same time, how- 
ever, far less sanguine than he is, that such a committee will be able to 
present to the Senate a scheme of adjustment of this unhappy subject, 
whit.'h will command the majority. Still, I would make the experiment^ 
and I would make experiments day after day, and night after night, if 
necessary, to accomplish the great and patriotic object to which I refer. 
"With regard to the formation of the Committee, I dare say the honorable 
senator may have consulted with other gentlemen, but I certainly was not 
consulted. Upon the other memorable occasion to which I have referred, 
I made out the Committee of Thirteen, and put it into the hands of the 
Speaker, and he appointed every member I proposed. In reference to the 
second committee, the joint committee on the part of the House and an 
appropriate number on the part of the Senate — from all sides of the House, 
members came flocking around me, begging that I would make out a list 
of a committee to be balloted for by the House. I accordingly turned n)y 
attention to the subject, and determined on the twenty -three names, and 
caused them to be distributed by the officers throughout the House; and 
eighteen were elected at the tirst ballot, and the other live, who liad the 
highest immber, each having a plurality, were, on my motion, elected, fur- 
ther balloting being dispensed with." 

« 

Mr. Clay's Hi: \i.th. 

^Vholl Mr. Clay rose to speak, on the 5th of April, he said : 

" The condition of my iK'alth scarcely justifies my being here at all ; 
but such is the deep, inextinguishable anxiety I feel on this subject, that, 
oven at the risk of injury to my health, I feel an irrepressible inclination 
always to be at my post." 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 357 

He proceeded to say : 

" Mr. President, no one can deplore more than I do, what is the manifest 
state of feeling and relation of parties at this time, in both Houses of Con- 
gress. It is in a great measure the result of those unhappy a;ritation3 
which prevail in Congress and (hrou;4hout the country. Those agitations 
have engendered feelings of distrust of the honor and fidelity with which, 
after one portion of the common subject has been disposed of, the other 
portions of the same subject may be disposed of. Sir, I do not partake of 
these fcehngs to the extent which, I apprehend, some others may. From 
the tir..t moment of my entrance into this House, until now, my anxious 
desire lias been to see these great questions amicably adjusted, and to see 
harmony and concord, and fratein.al atiection once more restored to this 
divided, and for the moment, uidiappy country. And, sir, acting upon tliis 
feeling, I have favored any proposition which has been offered, which 
looked to such a termination of the subject as I have described. Less con- 
fident, perhaps, than others may bo, in regard to particular modes of ad- 
justing the questions, I have been for embracing them all — no matter 
from what quarter they might come — which looked toward restonng 
union and harmony." 

Parliamentary Tactics. 

Mr. Clay was at first in favor of admitting California by 
itself; but when he saw the trouble likely to arise from the 
Wilmot Proviso and parliamentary tactics, in acting on the Ter- 
ritorial Governments separately, he was then in favor of putting 
Caliibrnia in the same hill with the Territories. 

On the 8th of April, he said : 

" We know ihat there are groat difficulties with reference to the passage 
of Territcrial goveriiments unconnecte 1 with the Wilmot Proviso. * * * 
I alluded, the o:lier day, to other considerations not likely to happen in 
this House, but which have happened, and may again happen, in the 
other House of Congress. I alluded to what we heard said — with most 
decided disapprobation on my part — I heard, that, if it was attempted to 
force on the minority of the other House a measure unacceptable to it, 
without its assccia.ion with other objects in view, that minority would re- 
sort, in resistance of it, not I trust to acts of violence, but to those parlia- 
menbiry rules and modes of proceeding, of which we have before had in- 
stances, in this count- y, and which I myself witnessed forty years ago, in a 
most remarkable degree, in the House of Representatives, and which we 
know some consider lawful at any time to be employed. For myself, I 
differ, perhaps, from most members of this body, or of any deliberative body, 
on this subject. I am for the trial of mind against mind, of argument 
afrainst argument, of reason against reason; and when, after such employ- 
ment of our intellectual faculties, I find myself in the minority, I am for 



358 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

submitting to the act of the majority. I am not for resorting to adjoum- 
meiits, calls for the yeas and nays, and other dilatory proceedings, in order 
to delay that which, if the Constitution has full and fair operation, must 
inevitably tiike place. But while this is my judgment of what is proper 
in deliberative bodies, other gentlemen entertain different opinions. They 
tliink it fair to employ all the parliamentary means that are vested in 
them by the Constitution, or by the rules which regulate the body to 
which they belong, to defeat, impede, or delay, to any extent, the passage 
of the measure which they consider odious. I repeat, sir, I do not justify 
such a course. But we must take man as he is, with all his weaknesses 
and infirmities, and we can never expect to make him as we could wish 
him to be." 

Mu. Clay against Instructions to the Committee. 

April 17th, Mr. Clay said : 

" There have been some seventeen i-esolutions proposed by the senator 
from Tennessee and myself to the Senate. The Senate has expressed no 
oi)inion upon any one of them. * * * The proposition is to refer all 
these subjects to a committee, and my amendment is, that I will not say 
to that committee beforehand, how they are to act upon this or that 
subject." 

A Little Affair ^vith Mr. Benton. 

" The honorable senator [Mr. Benton] has spoken of a caucus," said Mr. 
Clay, " and intimated that there was one. On what authority does he 
make such an assertion ? I pronounce it a mistake — an absolute and 
entire mistake. There has been no caucus, that I know of, although, God 
knows, I would attend a caucus of any and of every body, to settle this most 
unhappy question, which is now distracting the country — and I would 
attend it without any feelings of reproach, from whatever quarter it might 
be hurled. The honorable senator speaks of his rights. Yes, sir ; and 
other senators have their rights also ; and other senatoi-s are just as well 
prepai'ed to assert their rights, as the senator from Missom'i. And, sir, the 
Senate has its rights. Now, sir, I put it to the Senate and to the country, 
what has been the progress of this matter ? The senator from Missouri 
proposes an amendment embracing four propositions, and as a sort of 
menace, I suppose, he shells out eight or ten others, and speaks of having 
others still in reserve ! Well, my dear sir — Mr. Pr<\sident, 1 mean — has 
not this body a right to protect itself? Has not a majority of this Senate 
a right to sjiy whether they will or will not create a Committee without 
any instructions ? * * * I say, sir, that a majority of the Senate ought 
to havf this power. I care not by what name you call it. The ))revious 
question ! Ah, sir, not many years will elapse before you will lin.l ihe in- 
dispensable necessity of t<Tiiiinating a useless and unnecessary debate in 
this House. In my reflections upon the past, in respect to my parliament- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 359 

ary career — my congressional career — I look back to no part of it with 
more satisfaction than the introduction of that previous question in the 
other wing of this Capitol. * * * Let my amendment [for no instruc- 
tions, to tlie conmiittec] lie adopted, and then let tlie senator [Mr. ]3enton] 
ofter his other instructions, from one to ninety-nine, if he pleases, and we 
will see whether the question of order will not silence them all." 

Mr. Clay Opposed to the Rejection of Abolition Petitions. 

Numerous Abolition Petitions having been sent to the Senate, 
and while a motion Avas pending to reject them, Mr. Clay said, 
on the ISth of April : 

" Sir, I congratulate you, I congratulate the nation, I congratulate man- 
kind, for the prospect that now opens for a final and amicable settlement of 
this question. I believe such a settlement will be made after the occur- 
rences in this body this week, and after what we know of the patriotic dis- 
position of the majority in the other House. Now, sir, Avhen these ques- 
tions are settled, I want no man to have it in his power to go home and 
make such speeches as we have heard here. I want no man to go home 
and endeavor to excite the people, by telling them, ' Your petitions Avere 
treated with the utmost indignity!' I hope, therefore, that these petitions 
will be taken up, and referred to the Committee." 

Report of the Committee of Thirteen. 

On the 8th of May, Mr. Clay brought in the report of the 
Committee of Thirteen, of which the following are extracts : 

" In considering the question of the admission of California, as a State, 
into the Union, a majority of the Committee conceive, that any irregu- 
larity by which that State was organized, without the pre\nous authority 
of an act of Congress, ought to be overlooked, in consideration of the 
omission by Congress to establish any territorial government for the peo- 
ple of California, and the consequent necessity which they were under to 
create a government for themselves best adapted to their own wants. 
There are various instances, prior to the case of California, of the admis- 
sion of new States into the Union, without any previous authorization by 
Conoress. The sole condition required by the Constitution of tlie United 
States in respect to the admission of a new State, is, that its Constitution 
shall be republican in form. California presents such a Constitution, and 
there is no doubt of her having a greater population than that which, ac- 
cording- to the practice of the government, has been heretofore deemed suf- 
ficient to receive a new State into the Union. 

" A majority of the Committee have been led to recommend to the 
Senate, that the two measures [the admission of California and the organ- 



360 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850, 

ization of Territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico,] be united. 
The bill for establishing the two Territories, it will be observed, omits the 
Wilmot Proviso, on the one hand, and on the other makes no provision for 
the introduction of slavery into any part of the new Territories. That 
Proviso has been the fruitful source of distraction and agitation. If it were 
adopted and applied to any Territory, it would cease to have any obligatory 
force as soon as such Temtory were admitted as a State into the Union. 
There was never any occasion for it, to accomplish the professed object 
with which it was originally offered. This has been already demonstrated 
by the current of events. California, of all the recent territorial acquisitions 
from Mexico, was that in which, if anywhere within them, the introduction 
of slavery was most likely to take place ; and the Constitution of Califor- 
nia, by the unanimous vote of her Convention, has expressly interdicted it. 
There is the highest degree of probability that Utah and New Mexico will, 
when they come to be admitted as States, follow the same example. The 
Proviso is, as to all those regions in common, a mere abstraction. Why 
should it be any longer insisted on ? Totally destitute, as it is, of any 
practical import, it has, nevertheless, had the pernicious effect to excite 
serious if not alarming consequences. It is high time that the wounds 
■which it has inflicted should be healed up and closed ; and that to avoid 
in all future time the agitations which must be produced by the conflict of 
opinion on the slavery- question — existing as this institution does, in some of 
the States, and prohibited in others — the true principle which ought to reg- 
ulate the action of Con<xress, in forminj; Territorial jjovernments for each 
newly acquired domain, is to refrain from all legislation on the subject in the 
Territory acquired, so long as it retains the Territorial form of government, 
leaving it to the people of such Territory, when they have attained to a 
condition which entitles them to admission as a State, to decide for them- 
selves the question of the allowance or prohibition of domestic slavery, 
Tlie Committee believe that they express the anxious desire of an immense 
majority of the people of the United States, when they declare that it is 
high time that good feelings, harmony, and fraternal sentiments should be 
agiin revived, and that the Government should be able once more to pro- 
ceed in its great operations to promote the happiness and prosperity of the 
countiT, undisturbed by this distracting cause. 

"The Committee would now proceed to the consideration of, and to re- 
port upon the subject of persons, owing sernce or labor in one State, es- 
caping into another. The text of the Constitution is quite clear: 'No 
person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escap- 
ing into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but i^hall be delivered uji on claim 
of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.' Nothing can be 
more explicit than this language — nothing more manifest than the right 
to demand, and the obligation to deliver up to the claimant, any such fugi- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1830. 361 

tive. And the Constitution addresses itself alike to the States composiiig 
the Union, and to the General Governuient. If, indeed, there wfie any 
diftlrence in the duty to enforce this portion of the Constitu'.ion lietwern 
the States and the Feder.il government, it is more clear that it is that of 
the former than of the latter. But it is the duty of both. It is now well 
known and incontestible, that ci'.izens in slave holding States encounter 
the greatest difficulty in obtaining the benefit of this provision of the 
Constitution. The attempt to recapture a fugitive is almost always a sub- 
ject of gi-eat irritation and excitement, and often leads to most unpleasant, 
if not peiilous collisions. An owner of a slave, it is quite iiotoiious, can 
not pursue his property for the purpose of its recovery, in some of the 
States, without imminent personrd hazard. This is a deplorable state of 
thinirs, which oudit to be remedied. The law of 1793 has been f(jund 
■wholly ineffectual, and requires more stringent enactments. Theie is es- 
pecially a deficiency in the number of public functionaries authorized to 
afford aid in the seizure and arrest of fugitives. Various States have de- 
clined to afford aid and co-operation in the surrender of fugitives from 
labor, as the Committee believe, from a misconception of their duty aiis- 
ing under the Constitution of the United States. It is true that a decis- 
ion of the Supreme Court of the United States has given countenance to 
them in withholding their assistance. But the Committee can not but be- 
heve that the intention of the Supreme Court has been misunderstood. 
They can not but think that that Court merely meant that laws of the sev- 
eral States which created obstacles in the way of the recovery of fugitives 
■were not authorized by the Constitution, and not that State-laws affording 
facihties for the recovery of fugitives were forbidden by that instrument. 

"But whatever may be the conduct of individual States, the duty of the 
General Government is perfectly clear. That duty is to amend the exist- 
ing law, and to provide an effectual remedy for the recovery of fugitives 
from service or labor. In devising such a remedy, Crongress ought, while 
on the one hand securinc: to the owner the fair restoration of his property, 
eftectually to guard on the other against any abuses in the application of 
that remedy, 

" In all cases of the arrest within a State, of persons charged with of 
fenses ; in all cases of the pursuit of fugitives from justice, from one State 
to another; in all cases of extradition provided for by treaties between 
nations — the proceeding is uniforndy summary. It has never been thought 
necessary to apply, in cases of that kind, the forms and ceremonies of a 
final trial. And when that trial does take place, it is in the State or coun- 
try from which the party has fled, and not in that in which he has found 

refuw. 

*********** 

"The maioritv of the Committee are of the opinion that the slave-trade 
in the District of Columbia, ought to be abolished. It is a trade some- 



3G2 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

times exhibiting revolting spectacles, and one in wliich the people of the 
District have no interest, but, on the contrary, are believed to be desirous 
to have it discontinued. Most, if not all of the slaveliolding States have, 
either bv their constitutions or by penal enactments, piohibited the trade 
in slaves as merchandise in their respective jurisdictions. Congress may 
safely follow this example of the States. 



" If such of these measures as require legislation should be carried out 
by suitable acts of Congress, all controversies to Avhich our late territorial 
acquisitons have given rise, and all existing questions connected with the 
institution of slavery, whether resulting from those acquisitions, or from its 
existence in the States anil in the District of Columbia, will be amicably 
settled and adjusted, in a manner, it is confidently believed, to give general 
satisfaction to an overwhelming majority of the people of the United 
States. Congress will have fulfilled its whole duty in regard to the vast 
country which, having been ceded by Mexico to the United States, has 
fallen under their dominion. It will have extended to it protection, pro- 
vided for its several parts the inestimable blessing of a free and regular 
government adapted to their various wants, and placed the whole under 
the banner and flag of the United States." 

Mr. Clay's Exposition of the Report. 

On the 13th of May, Mr. Clay went at large into an exposi- 
tion of the report of tlie Committee of Thirteen. The follow- 
ing are extracts from his speech on that occasion : 

" Mr. President, I am not discouraged by any thing that has transpired 
in the Committee or in the Senate, or in the country, upon the subject of 
this measure. I have believed from the first, and I yet firmly believe, that, 
if these uidiapi)V subjects which have divided the country are to be ac- 
commodated bvan amicable adjustment, it must be upon some such basis 
as that which the Committee [of Thirteiii] have reported; and can there 
be a doubt on the mind of any honorable senator on the subject ? Sir, I 
believe that the crisis of the crisis has anivcl ; and the fate of the meas- 
ures which have been reported by the Committee will, in my humble 
judgujcnt, determine the question of the harmony or continued distraction 
of the country. Entertaining this belief, I can not but indulge the hope 
that honorable senators, who, upon the first hearing of the report, might 
have seen some matters in it objectionable, according to their wishes and 
judgment, and that the entire Senate, after a full consideration of the 
plan, and after a fair contrast between it and all the other proposed plans, 
and idl the other practicable plans for the adjustment of these questions — 
whatever expectations and hopes mav have been announced elsewhere out 
of this bodv — will ultimately give it a general concurrence." 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 363 

California. 

*' How is it with California ? You have deserted her ; you have aban- 
doned her ; you have viohvted your engagement contained in the treaty of 
Guadahipe Hidalgo, and left her to shift for herself as well as she could. 
In this state of abandonment she chose to form to herself a Constitution, 
and she has come here to ask for admission ; and I ask again, as I had 
occasion to ask three months ago, whether she does not present herself 
with much stronger claims for admission than those States which had all 
the advantages of a free government, and which came here to be admitted 
into the Union?" 

Change of Public Feeling. 

" The minds of men have moderated ; passion has given place to reason 
everywhere. Everywhere, in all parts of the Union, there is a demand — 
a demand, I trust, the force and effect of which will be felt in both Houses 
of Congress — for an amicable adjustment of these questions, for the re- 
linquishment of those extreme opinions, whether entertained on the one 
side or on the other, and coming together once more as friends, as brethren, 
li\nng in a common country, and enjoying the benefits of freedom and 
happiness flowing from a common government." 

Recommendation of the President. 

" Sir, I think, if the President had at this time to make a recommenda- 
tion to Congress, with all the lights that have been shed upon the subject 
since the commencement of this session of Congress, nearly five months 
ago, he would not limit himself to a recommendation merely for the ad- 
mission of California, leaving the Territories to shift for themselves as they 
could or micfht. He tells us in one of those messaijes, that he had reason 
to believe that one of the Territories, at least New Mexico, miglit possibly 
form a State government for herself, and might come here with an apph- 
cation for admission during the progress of this session. But we hive no 
evidence that such an event is about to happen ; and if it did, coul 1 New 
Mexico be admitted as a State ? At all events, there has been such a 
change of circumstances since the message was sent in, that I can not but 
believe, that the gentleman who now presides at the head of our public 
affairs, if he had had the benefit of all these lights, would have made the 
recommendation much more comprehensive, and much more general and 
healing in its character, than a simple recommendation for the a Imission 
of California, leaving all the other questions unsettled and opeu, to exaspe- 
rate the feelings of parties." 

Claims of Utah and New Mexico. 

" Sir, I have spoken of the abamlonod condition of Utah and Xew 
Mexico, left without any authority of this government, acting locally to 



364 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

protect the citizens who go there to settle, or to protect those who are in 
transitu through the country, without any authority connected with the 
supreme government here, or any means of communicating from time to 
time the state of things as they exist there. To abandon these countries, 
in the face of our obligations contained in the treaty of Hidalgo, an.l other 
high obligations by which we are bound — to abandon them thus, W(juld 
not, as appears to me, be conformable to that duty which we are called 
upon to perform. Leave these Territorial questions unsettled, and the 
door of agitation is left wide open ; settle them, and it is closed, I hope 
forever." 

Mr. Benton's Two Cannons. 

" Sir, the Committee recommend the union of these three measures. 
[Settling the boundaries of Texas, and organizing the Territories of Utah 
and New Mexico.] If the senator fiom ^lissouri will allow me the benefit 
of those two cannons pointing to this side of the Ilouse [alluding to the 
two volumes of Hatsel], I shall be much obliged to him." 

Mr. Benton had objected to " tacking" incongruous subjects in 
one bill, and read from Ilatsel on Parliamentary usages. Mr. 
Clay replied by showing what American Congressional usages 
had been, and cited instances of joining things in the same bill, 
which liad no affinity. But there was affinity in the siil)jccts of 
this bill, and they were not, therefore, incongrnons. even if in- 
congruity of subjects were objectionable; but it was not. It 
was very common to luiite things in the same bill, which were 
totally unlike, as was shown by Mr. Clay. Although the '• two 
cannons" were not on Mr. Benton's desk, as Mr. Clay supposed, 
he turned them on his opponent, and fued them otf from mem- 
ory. He also opened an American battery, and demonstrated 
American usages, by an ellective fire. 

Slavery Abolished in Mexico. 

"I shall not enlarge on the ojmiion which I have already announced to 
the Senate as being held by me ou this subjeet, [that slavery had beeu 
abolished in Mexico, and c<)nse(]uently did not exist in the Territories ac- 
quired from Mexico by the United States]. My o])inion of the law of 
Mexico, in all the variety of forms in which legislation can take place- 
that is to say, by the odict of a dictator, by the Constitution of the people 
of Mexico, ami by the act of the l-gislative authority of Mexico — by all 
these modes of legislation, my opinion is that slavery has been abolished 
there. I am aware that some other senators entertain a different opinion ; 
but without going into a discussion on that question, I feel autlK)ri7.ed to 
say, that the opinion of a vast majority of the people of the United States, 



THE COMl'ROMISE OF 1850. 365 

of a vast majority of American jurists, is in coiiu-idence with tliat wliich I 
entertain ; that is to say, that, at this moment, by law and in fact, tliere is 
no slavery there." 

Fugitive Slave Law. 

" The Committee have proposed two amendments to be made in the 
bill introduced by the senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason], whenever the 
bill is taken up. The first of tliese amendments })iovides, that the owner 
of a fugitive slave, when leaving his own State, and whenever it is practi- 
cable, shall carry with him a record from the State from which the fugitive 
has fled ; which record shall contain an adjudication of three fact^, fi;st the 
fact of slavery, and secondly the fact of an elopement ; and in the third 
place such a general description of the slave as the court shall be enabled 
to give upon such testimony as is brought before it. It also |)rovides, that 
this record, taken from the county court, or from the court record in the 
slave State, shall be carried to the free State, and shall be tliere held to be 
competent and sufficient evidence of the facts which it avows." 

Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, here asked, " Is it proposed that the cer- 
tificate shall be from the judge or from the court ?" 

Mr. Clay : " Mr. President, I confess I had in view the County courts, 
and the courts of Probate." 

Trial by Jury Agreed to in Committee. 

"The other amendment," said ^Ir. Clay, " provides, that when the 
owner of his property shall arrest his property in a non-slaveholding State, 
and shall take him before the proper functionary, to obtain his certificate 
to authorize the return of that property to the State from which it fled, if 
he [the alleged fugitive] declares that he is a free man, said functionary 
[commissioner or other officer] shall take a bond, without surety, from the 
agent or owner, etc., that he will give the alleged fugitive a trial for his 
freedom before the first court that shall be convened after his return." 

We have stated, in the ninth chapter, that Mr. Clay was not 
present in the Senate when this bill came up and was passed. 
We have also intimated that the act is not altogether such as 
he would have desired. We have looked into the law, as pub- 
lished in the Statutes at liAROE, to see if the amendments, 
as specified above by Mr. Clay, and agreed to in committee, 
were actually carried out. We find the substance of the first 
amendment somewhat altered ; but the second^-the most im- 
portant of the two — does not appear at all. Mr. Clay seems to 
have regarded the second amendment as a trial by jury. For 
he says : " The trial by jury is what is demanded by the non- 
slaveholding States. Well, we put the party claimed to be a 



366 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

fugitive back to the State from which he fled, and give him a 
trial by jury in that State." This is Mr. Clay's explanation of 
the amendment agreed to in committee ; but it is not in the law. 
If Mr. Clay had been present, when the bill was before the Senate, 
it probably would have been there. He evidently expected it, as 
having been agreed to in the committee. 

DlFFICLLTIES OF THE SuBJECT. 

Mr. Clay said : 

"Oil all subjects of this kiiid, we must deal fuirly and honestly by all. 
We must recollect that there are prejudices, and feelings, and interests, and 
sympathies, on both sides of the question ; and no man who has ever brought 
his mind seriously to the consideration of a suitable measure for the recap- 
ture of runaway slaves, can f;iil to admit that the question is surrounded 
with great difficulties. * * * In the slave holding States the rule is, 
that color implies slavery, and the onus prohandi of freedom is thrown on 
the person claiming it. On the contrary, in the free States, the onus is 
shifted, and the fact of slavery must be proved. Every man of color in the 
free States is regarded as free ; and when he is claimed as a slave, the feel- 
ings of the people are naturally excited in his favor. We all respect these 



feelings." 



Higher Law and Natural Law. 



"There is one opinion prevailing which nothing that we can do will con- 
ciliate. I allude to that opinion which asserts that there is a higher law 
— a divine law — a natural law — which entitles a man, under whose roof a 
runaway slave has come, to give him assistance, and succor, and hospi- 
talitv. Where is the difterence between receiving and harboring a known 
fugitive slave, and going to the plantation of his master and stealing him 
away ? And who are they that venture to tell us what is Divine and what 
is natural law ? Where are their credentials ? Why, sir, we are told, 
that the other day, at a meeting of some of those people at New York, 
Moses and all the prophets were rejected, and Christ blasphemed ! K 
Moses and the prophets, and our Saviour are to be rejected, will they con- 
descend to show us their authority for this new Divine law I The law of 
nature, sir ? Look at it, as it is promulgated, and attonij)tod to be en- 
forced, in some parts of the world. There is a large cl;v*s who say, that 
if a man has acquired a large estate by his own exertions, or by inherit- 
ance, they are entitled by a law of nature to have a portion of it. An- 
othi-r modern law of nature is, that the possession of more land than you 
can cultivate, is a forbidden nionojioly. Heaven supersedes the paroh- 
mont from Gnveriitnent ! Wild, reckless, and abominable theories, which 
strike at the t()un<lation of all property and threaten to crush in ruins the 
fabric of civihzatiou i" * * * 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 367 

" The Committee, in considering this delicate subject, and looking at the 
feelings and interests of both sides of the question, thought it best to offer 
these two provisions — that which requires the production of a record in 
the non-slave holding States, and that which requires a bond to grant to 
the real claimant of his freedom a trial by jury in the place where tliat 
trial ought to take place, according to a just interpretation of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. Therefore, in order to obviate the difficulties 
which have been presented, and to salisf}' the prejudices of the non-slave 
holding States, we propose to give the fugitive the right of trial by juiy 
in the State from which he lied." 

How Trials for Freedom in a Slave State are Managed. 

"The statement in the report is perfectly true, that the greatest facilities 
are always extended to every man of color in the slave liolding States who 
sues for freedom. T have never known of an instance of a failure on the 
part of a person thus suing to procure a verdict and judgment in his 
favor, if there were even slight grounds to support his claim. And, so far 
is the sympathy in behalf of a person suing for his freedom carried, that 
few members of the bar appear against them. I will mention — though 
with no boastful spirit — that I myself never appeared but once in my life 
against a person suing for his freedom ; but have appeared for them in 
many instances, without charging them a solitary cent. That, I believe, 
is the general course of the libi^ral and eminent portion of the bar through- 
out the country. One case [above alluded to] I made an exception ; but 
it was a case where I appeared for a particular friend. I told him : ' Sir, 
I will not appear against your negroes, unless I am perfectly satisfied that 
they have no right to freedom ; and even if I shall become, after the prog- 
ress of the trial, convinced that they are entitled to freedom, I shall 
abandon your cause.' " 

It appears, however, that in the absence of Mr. Clay, when 
this bill was up and passed, only the first of these two amend- 
ments agreed on in Committee, to which Mr. Clay attached so 
much importance, was put in the bill ; and that, too, in a qualified 
and attenuated form, to serve the convenience of, and save ex- 
pense to, the claimant of the alleged fugitive. The other, by 
far the most important of the two, to wit, a trial by jury, if 
the fugitive claims to be a freeman, does not appear in tlie act. 
It is evident, therefore, as we have stated in the ninth chapter, 
that the fugitive slave law did not fully satisfy the wishes, and 
carry out the plan of Mr. Clay, although he was placed in cir- 
cumstances in which he was obliged to vindicate it. Although 
there would be a natural jealousy in the free States, in the ren- 
dition of an alleged fugitive, to be tried for his freedom in a 



308 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

slave State, j\Ir. Clay gives the reason of universal cnstom in the 
rendition of fugitives from justice, the principle of which he 
thinks, applies to an alleged fugitive slave ; and he also thinks, 
as above stated by himself, that a man of color, held as a slave, 
but claiming to be a free man, has a fair chance in a court of a 
slave State. It should, however, be remembered, that the feel-' 
ing of the people of the free States would naturally be against 
trusting the decision of the question of a man's right to himself, 
to those who advocate slavery and hold slaves. What ]\Ir. Clay 
says of the fair chances of a colored man, before a court in a 
slave State, suing for his freedom, may be true ; and all who 
knew Mr. Clay, know that he believed what he said, with ample 
observation and much experience. But since the fugitive slave 
law awards no such trial for freedom as Mr. Clay intended it 
should, it is rather out of place to enlarge on the point. 

Suppression of the Slave-trade in the District of Columbia. 

On tiie bill for the suppression of the slave-trade in the District 
of Columbia, among other things, Mr. Clay said : 

" I believe the first ni:iii in my life that I ever heard denounce ttat 
trade, w;ls a Southern man — Joim Randolph of Roanoke. I believe there 
has been no time within the last forty years, when, if earnestly pressed 
upon Congress, there Avould not have been found a majority — perhaps 
a majority from the slave-holding States themselves — in favor of tlie 
abolition of the slave-trade in this District. The bill which the Committee 
has reported, is founded upon the law of Maryland, as it existed when this 
District was set apart and ceded to the United States. * * * Sir, 
some years ago it would have been thought a great concession to the 
feelings and wishes of the North, to abolish this slave-trade. Now, I 
have seen some of the rabid abolition presses denouncing it as amounting 
to nothing. It is nothing that slavery is interdicted in California. They 
do not aire for all that. * * * At the beginning of this session, as 
you know, that oftensive proposal, called the Wilinot Proviso, was what 
was most apj)rehended, and what all the slave-holding States were most 
desirous of gitting rid of. Well, sir, by the operation of causes upon the 
NorllK-rn mind friendly to the Union, hopes were inspired which I trust 
will not be frustrated in the progress of this measure, that the North, or at 
least a sullicicnt portion of the North, are now willing to dispense with 
tlte Proviso." * * ='' 

New Difficulties. 

'• Nb-. 1 'resident, after we have got rid, as I had hoped, of all these 
troubles — after this Wilmot Proviso has disappeared, as I trust it may, 



THE COJLPROMISE OF 1850. 369 

both in tliis and in the other end of the Capitol — what are the new diffi- 
cultios that spring up around us ? Matters of form. The purest (jiu-stion 
of form that was ever presented to tlie mind of man — wliethcr we shall 
combini-, in one united bill three measures, all of which are necessary and 
homogeneous ; or separate them into three distinct bills, passing each in 
its turn, if it can be done." 

An Appeal to Patriotism. 

" Mr. President, I trust that the feelings of attachment to the Union, of 
love for its past glory, of anticipation of its future benefits and happiness; 
a fraternal feeling which ought to be common throughout all parts of the 
country ; the desire to live together in peace and harmony ; to prosper as 
we have prospered heretofore ; to hold up to the civilized world the exam- 
ple of our great and glorious Republic fulfilling the high destiny that be- 
longs to it, demonstrating beyond all doubt, man's capacity for self-govern- 
ment — these motives and these considerations will, I confidently hope, and 
fervently pray, animate us all, bringing us together, to dismiss alike all 
questions of abstraction and mere form, and consummating the act of con- 
cord, harmony, and peace, in such a manner as to heal not one only, but 
all the wounds of the country." 

Mr. Foote Friendly to the Bill. 

Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, who at first showed great opposition 
to Mr. Clay's resoUttions, became the earnest advocate of the 
report of the Committee of Thirteen. At the close of his speech, 
May IGth, he said : 

" Mr. President, I confess that I am ambitious to co-operate with pat- 
riotic men of all parties, at this feaiful and perplexing crisis. I wish to 
assist in re-establishing those ties of fraternal aftection which once so strongly 
bound together the whole body of our countrymen, which has been so 
alarmingly enfeebled of late, and which, it is to be feared, are at this moment 
in danger of utter extinction. This is the whole complexion and extent of 
my ambition, and I devoutly beseech the Almighty, that lie would vouchsafe 
its gratification. Let me be loaded with denunciation, derision, contempt, 
and even infamy ; and yet shall I be able to endure it all without a murmur, 
provided it shall at the same time be a Imitted by my adversaries, that my 
happy country and its free institutions have been rescued in part by my 
poor exertions, from the overthrow with which they are now threatened 
by sectional jealousies, by fierce and fiery fanaticism, by untempered zeal, 
and it may be, in part al>o, by a selfish and unscrupulous ambition for 
local ascendency and influence. * * * I do not in the least degree 
doubt, that mv conduct here will stand approved by those to whom I am 
chiefly responsible. But even if it be my fate to incur condenmation 
where I have hoped for approval, I shall never reg-ret for an instant, what 

24 



370 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

I am now doing ; and I feel authorized to close this hasty and irregular 
speech, with the prediction that the indications now everj-where so appa- 
rent in favor of the plan of settlement before us, will continue to multiply 
upon our vision, until the acclamations of twenty millions of people sh:ill 
be heard to break forth upon the consummation of that scheme of peace, 
of conciliation, and of compromise, which is to mark the year 1850 as the 
most happy and most glorious in our national annals," 

Hard to Please Both Sides. 

May 21st, Mr. Clay said : 

"I am accused at the North of casting unmerited opprobrium upon the 
right of trial by jury and the administration of justice; while at the South, 
in another and in the last extreme, from which I should not have expected 
any thing of the kind, I find that the amendment [agreed to in Committee 
for trial by jury on the return of the fugitive, if he claims to be a free man] 
is objected to as creating embarrassments to the owners of fugitive slaves. 
Sir, this is something like the old song : 

" 'I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, 
The reason why I can not tell ; 
But this I know, and know full well, 
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.' " 

This amendment, however, as has been seen, did not become 
a part of tlie law, Mr. Clay not being there to advocate it, when 
the bill was on its passage. 

No Slavery in New Mexico. 

"I can not," said Mr. Clay, May '21st, "agree to an amendment [to the 
territorial bill for New Mexico] which, in point of fact, assumes that slavery 
has an existence there at this time, and which assumes, in point of law, 
that under the Constitution of the United States, there is a right to carry 
slaves there. I can not vote for either proposition." 

How TO Q.UIET THE UnION. 

" I am not one of those who, either at the commencement of this ses- 
sion, or at any time during its progress, have believed that there was any 
present actual danger to the existence of the Union. But I am one of 
those who believe, that if tliis agitation is continued for one or two years 
longer, no man can foresee the dreadful consequences. A dissolution of 
the Union, the greatest of all calamities, in my opinion, which can befall 
this country, may not in form t;ike place ; but next to that is a dissolution 
of those fraternal kindred ties which bind us together as one free. Christian, 
and commercial people. In my opinion, the body politic can not be pre- 
served, unless this agitation, this distraction, this exasperation, which is 
going on between the two sections of the country, shall cease. Unless it 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 371 

do cease, I am afraid that this Union, for all the high and noble purposes 
for which our fathers formed it, will not be preserved. * * * 

"Let us suppose that Conrrress does nothinnr ; let us suppose that it fails 
to furnish a remedy for any one of the evils which now atflict the country. 
Suppose we separate and go home under those mutual feelings of dissatis- 
faction and discontent which will arise out of the failure of Congress to 
adjust these questions. I will say nothing of the reproacli and opprobrium 
that will be brought upon us by all Christendom. I will say nothing of 
those who are looking on us with anxious solicitude, under the hope that 
we will fultill all the expectations and the high destinies which appertain to 
one among the greatest of all countries. I will say nothing of that large 
portion of mankind who are gazing with intense anxiety upon this great 
experiment in behalf of man's capacity for self government and man's free- 
dom. I will say nothing of all this. Suppose, then, that after the lapse 
of six or seven months, during which we were vainly endeavoring to re- 
concile the distracted and divided parts of the country, we go home full of 
the feelings of rage and animosity, one section against another. In such a 
state of feeling can the Republic long continue ? * * * 

" It has been said, that nothing has been done for the South in the es- 
tablishment of these Temtorial governments ; nothing in this measure of 
compromise. What, sir? Is there nothing done for the South, when 
there is total absence of all Congressional action on the delicate subject of 
slavery — when Congress remains passive, neither adopting the Wilmot 
Proviso on the one hand, nor authorizing the introduction of slavery on 
the other — when every thing is left in statu quo ? What was the South 
complaining of all along ? The Wilmot Proviso — a proviso which, if it 
be fastened upon this measure — as I trust it may not be — will be the re- 
sult, I apprehend, of the difficulty of pleasing Southern gentlemen. Their 
great eft'ort, their great aim, has been, for several years, to escape from that 
odious measure. The pro\'iso is not in the bill. The bill is silent. It is 
non active on the subject of slavery. The bill admits that if slavery is 
there, there it remains. The bill admits, that if slavery is not there, there 
it is not. The bill is neither Southern nor Northern. It is equal ; it is 
fair ; it is a compromise, which any man, whether at the North or at the 
South, who is desirous of h-ealing the wounds of his country may accept, 
without dishonor or disgrace, and go home Avith joy in his heart. Neither 
the North nor the South have triumphed. There is perfect reciprocity. 
The Union only has triumphed." 

Mr. Clay's Reply to the Ch.vrge of Delaying the Public 

Business. 

On the 12th of Jane, Mr. Clay said : 

" Sir, while I am up, feeble as I am, I feel constrained by the connection 
which I have with this subject, and with the committee, to make a few 



372 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

observations in reply to the gentleman wlio sits in this now vacant seat 
[Mr. Seward]. Sir, the senator from New York began with an assertion 
•which I utterly deny, to wit, that the oftbrt to get these measures passed 
had arrested the progress of public business, and prevented Congress from 
discharging its duties. Now let us look a httle into this matter. There 
has been no compromise measure before the other branch of Confrress. 
noAv, th.en, I ask him, has the proposition for Compromise in this branch 
of Congress interrupted the public business in the other ? But so far from 
its being true that the committee and the majority of the Senate are liable 
to the charge of interrupting the progress of the public business, the senator 
himself, and those who co-operate with him, are the true and legitimate 
cause of the interruption of the public business in this branch of Congress. 
And how, sir ? How ? I will tell you how, and the country shall know 
how it is. I find by a memorandum which has been placed in mv hands, 
that on the 13th day of February, the senator from Mississippi [Mr. Foote] 
made his motion for the appointment of a Committee of Thirteen. If the 
committee had been appointed according to the ordinary course of legisla- 
tive proceeding, if it had been appointed as it ought to have been, for such 
an object as national reconciliation, without opposition ; if, as an experi- 
ment to settle the distractions of the country, every senator had voted for it 
as in my humble opinion, without wishing to cast reproach upon any one, 
they ought to have done, three months ago we might have had a report, 
and a definitive settlement of the question. The minoiity, who persever- 
ingly, from fii-st to last, resisted the appointment of the committee, and 
after the committee was appointed, resisted action upon the report of the 
conmiittce — they — I charge them before the country, and the senator from 
New York, who now sits on my right hand, among the rest — they, sir, are 
the true causes of the interruption of the public business — not of Congress, 
but of this branch of Congress. How often did the Senate, by a majority 
decisive and conclusive, express itself in favor of this committee 1 How 
often were instructions and other modes of delay resorted to ? 

'' I should be justified in applying a term which I forbear to applv to 
the course of this minority, which, from the beginning to the end, has 
been tlie cause of the impediment to the public business in this branch of 
Congress. The gentlemen who were not satisfied with the expression of 
the opinion of the majority once, twice, three, and four times, but who re- 
sorted to every possible means of thwarting the declared and known wish 
of the majority — I charge thein with being the cause of the obstruction, 
if there has been any, in the dispatch of the public business. Sir, what 
have we been doing this week — this precious week — when the whole 
coimtiy is looking on with undivided anxiety for some definite conclusion 
of this question, and when the other House also may be naturally anxious 
to hear what is the opinion of the accordant branch of the legislature ? 
On the first day of this very precious week, a motion was made on which to 
hang speeches, and three days afterward, when the speeches Avere deliv- 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 373 

ere<l, a withdrawal takes place of tlio proposition ! And yet we, the 
m:ijorit\', are to be chargod with impeding the progress of business! 
Sir, a more unjust, a more unmerited, a more unfounded charge was never 
pref;^!rred against the m;ijority of any body on earth. The delay does 
not come from us. Why, sir, an atlempt was made to lose a wliole week 
after the return fiom the funeral ceremonies of one of our colleagues — and 
it was made apparently, too, by some concert. To postpone, to delay, to 
iinpede, to procrastinate, has been the policy of the minority in this body ; 
and yet they rise up here and charge us, who have been anxious for speed 
■ — fi)r the speedy appointment of the committee, for a speedy report, and 
speedy action on that report^ — they charge us with causing delay ! As 
little delay took place in the committee, as was proper, on a subject of 
such vast complication and magnitude ; and since the report of that com- 
mittee, it has been our ;inxious wish, our most ardent desire, to come to a 
final conclusion upon the important questions which are involved in the 
report. What has been done by that committee, and by myself, as an 
humble member of it ? We have taxed our physical powers, and required 
the meeting of the daily sessions to be fixed an hour earlier, and we sat 
out all the working days last week, and yet we are to be charged with 
delaying the public business ! Sir, I answer for my friends of the major- 
ity, I answer for the committee, that they will be ready and willing, if 
they are permitted by the minoiity to do it, to come to a final decision in 
less than six days from this time. Sir, I felt the injustice of the unfounded 
imputation of delay to this committee, with such a degree of sensibility, 
that I forgot the ^veak and feeble, and I might almost add, the trembling 
limbs with which I have come to this body to-day." 

A Skirmish with Mr. Benton. 

Although Mr. Clay was scarcely able to stand, he yet had to 
speak again several times this day, at considerable length, and give 
all ills attention to the debate. Weak as he was, he could not re- 
sist an occasion of pleasantrj^ Mr. Benton, in his opposition, 
had read a speech of Mr. Clay, from three different sources. 
Whereupon Mr. Clay rose and said : 

" Mr. President, I wish to state, that I thought once or twice of calling 
the senator from Missouri to order. I believe it is out of order to road a 
bill three times the same day, without a unanimous consent. I think the 
rule ought to extend to a speech. The senator read my speech three 
times, which would have been out of order if the same rule applied to 
speeches which applies to bills. I think one reading might have answered 
the purpose of the honorable senator." 

It w^as at this time that ]Mr. Clay specified the requisite quali- 
fications of a lecturer and those who are lectured, which we have 



374 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

cited in the text. Mr. Benton had lectured the Senate and Mr. 
Clay, and Mr. Clay said lie thought two things were requisite for 
the success of such an attempt : ability in the lecturer to handle 
his subject, and a favorable reception with his audience. The 
lecture applied to Mr. Clay's tiirowing back the charge of delay- 
ing public business, from the majority on the minority, above 
cited. 

" Xow," said Mr. Clay, " how did this dispute as to who caused the de- 
lay, arise ? Did I begin it ? Did not the senator from New York [Mr. 
Sewar.l], one of the conspirators with the senator from Missouri, beijin it ? 
Was I doing any thing more than lepelling an unfounded charge made 
against the majority of the Committee of Thirteen ? This discussion did 
not originate with me." 

Mr. Benton's Accusatjon against Mr. Clay for Inconsistency, 

Answered. 

Mr. Clay was charged by Mr. Benton with inconsistency, 
which was answered by Mr. Clay, as follows: 

" Mr. President, at the commencement of this session of Congress, when 
I heard that California had formed a State Constitution, which was to be 
submitted to Congress in the course of a few weeks, I own that I was for 
her immediate admission. I regretted tliat it could not be done. If it de- 
pended on me, it should have been done before this. But I have aimed 
throughout life to be a practical man, and to give and take, to yield to all 
cases not involving essential principles. And, sir, do you not know, does 
not every member of the Senate know, that after two or three weeks had 
elapsed, after I had ascertained the condition of the two Houses of Con- 
gress, I adopted the opinion, upon which I have acted ever since, that the 
speediest mode of a.lmitting California, was by a combination of these several 
measures. Every senator knows that these were my views, and every sen- 
ator knows that I expressed them in this body; and if the senator f.om 
Missouri, instead of confining himself to the reading of a single speech 
from the Republic of yesterday, hail looked at other speeches of mine — 
and he does me honor in rea'ling any of my speeches — he would have seen 
that I have assigned the causes why I was induced to abandon the gound 
of a separate admission of California, for a combination, lie would also 
have seen, that I did it in reference to practical legislation, and to the con- 
dition of the other House, and of this House. There is no great dift'er- 
cnce of princiiile involved in the two modes. It is true we have heard a 
great deal about the dignity of California, and all tliat, sir. Tlie most 
perfect microscopic instrument that wjis ever made, would not enable the 
best eyes that man was ever blessed with, to sec this indignity to Califor- 
nia, in being associated with other measures." 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 375 

• A Spasm. 

Mr. Clay read a letter to show that Mr. Benton had also 
changed his mind as to the admission of California. Whether 
it was the truth of the letter that produced the etfect, we know 
not ; but ]Mr. Benton was quite excited and said : 

" I consider him [Mr. Clay] the author of that letter. He has adopted 
it. He has produced it in the American Senate. He has read it here, 
and as his letter I brand it as a most infamous calumny ; and with 
that brand upon it, it shall go upon the parhamentary history of the 
country." 

A senator : " Call him to order." 

The Vice President : " The senator is not in order." 

Mr. Benton : " Every body is in order but me. Every body is in order 
to attack me ; but I am not in order to defend myself. He must take caxe 
how he produces such things against me." 

The Vice President : " The senator is not in order." 

Mr. Clay : " I shall only say, that I repel with scorn and indignation 
the imputation, that I am the author of that letter. I hurl it back to him, 
that he may put it in his casket of calumnies, where he has many other 
thincfs of the same sort." 

The Vice President : " The senator is not in order." 

Mr. Benton : " You hurl it back ; but I got it on you first." 

The Vice President : " Order must be restored in the Hall." 

Mr. Webster : " I have only risen to say, that I am exceedingly pained 
that such occurrences should take place in the Senate." 

Mr. Benton : " Oh ! it is damnable 1" 

We do not remember the instance in which Mr. Clay was 
ever before called to order by the Chair, in the Senate of the 
United States. It must be allowed, that he had a strong provo- 
cation to say what he did say on this occasion. He had been 
accused by Mr. Benton of changing his opinion on the question, 
whether California should be admitted by herself alone, or be 
put in a bill with other measures, the latter of which was done 
by the Committee of Thirteen. The truth of the accusation 
was acknowledged by Mr. Clay, and he gave his reasons for it, 
which, no doubt, were very satisfactory to all persons, except 
Mr. Benton, who was disposed to make much of it. Mr. Clay, 
who at first was in favor of putting California through alone, 
came over to the opinion of a majority of the committee, that it 
would put these measures in peril, if they should be sent down to 
the House of Representatives in separate bills, and as a practical 



376 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

man, he agreed to put them in one bill. As every body appre- 
ciated his reasons, he cared nothing for the accusation of Mr. 
Benton, except as it took up so much time of the Senate, in 
being obliged to hsten to Mr. Benton's speeches on the subject. 
Whether it was to stop those speeches, we know not ; but ]\Ir. 
Clay thought proper to read the letter referred to, which did stop 
them very efl'ectually, and turned matters into a new channel — 
a short, but very disturbed and boiling current. It foamed and 
raged for a moment, and then pkuiged into the sea. 

The President's Plan. 
July 6, Mr. Bell said : 

" It is said, that the three most distiuguished gentlemen who support the 
plan of the Committee [of Thirteen], the senator from Kentucky [Mr. 
Clay], from ^Massachusetts [^h■. Webster], and from Michigan [Mr. 
Cass], have assumed a position from which they can not be moved, and 
that they will never accede to the plan of adjustment proposed by the 
President." 

Mr. Clay : " Will the senator allow me a word of explanation ?" 

Mr. Bell : " With pleasure.'' 

Mr. Clay : " I have never sai<l that this plan, and this plan only, could com- 
mand my approbation. So far from it, I have said. Show me any plan that 
will pacify the country, and give peace and harmony, and I will dismiss all 
my feelings of pride, all feelings connected with any aid I have given in 
conducting this plan. Xor did I ever say, in reference to California, that 
I would not vote for her admission, if this plan were not adopted, but 
quite the contrary. I have said, from the first to the last, I was in favor 
of a combination of measures, as containing equivalents and concessions, 
and more likely to pass the two Houses of Congi-ess. But that being ad- 
mitt<d, I was prepared to vote for the admission of California also. I 
know my friend does not intend to misrepresent me, but I have no attach- 
ment to' any i)lan. If I saw in the plan of the President, one wliich would 
settle these great questions, I would embrace it with pleasure, and I would 
trample my own under my feet. Yes, sir, I would embrace any ]>lan, 
come from what source it may, which will accomplish the great object of 
peace and concord." 

Mr. Bell : "These are noble sentiments, and such as we had a right to 
expect from the character of the senator." * * * 

Mr. ("lay: "I have thou'j^ht, and have come to the conclusion, that 
this plan [that of the Committee] only is likely to succeed. With respect 
to the a<lmission of California separately, I know nothing more than the 
senator himself [Mr. Bell]. lie knows what has been threatened, and 
what is likely to occur in the other House." [Parliamentary tactics, call- 
ing of the House, yeas and nays, etc.] 



the compromise of is.jo. 377 

Another Affair with Mr. Benton. 

On July 16th, Mr. Benton had said of tlie hill of the Com- 
mittee of Tliirteen : 

" The bill is caught— fa^rante delicto — taken in the fact, soized by the 
throat, and held up to public view [here Mr. 15, grappled the bill and held 
it up], and in the very act of pei-}K>trating the crime, in the very act of 
auctioneering for votes to pass itself." 

To which Mr. Clay replied : 

" iNow, sir, with regard to the boa-con«trictor struggle between the sen- 
ator and ihe bill, the issue of it may be what it pleases; but, sir, I put it 
to the Senate and to the country, whether language such as this is admis- 
sible upon the tloor of the Senate — ' auclioneering for votes to carry the 
bill.' Who auctioneered? The bill, or the Committee? If the senator 
means to say that the Committee, or any member of the Committee, auc- 
tioneereJ, or that it was the intention of the bill to auctioneer for votes 
to carrv it, I repel the charge as a groundless and unfounded implication. 
But, sir, is not such language as this remarkable to be used in a delibera- 
tive body ? Why, sii-, it would be applicable to every case of appropria- 
tion of money. It might be said that the object is to bribe, to auctioneer 
for votes, to purchase votes, in order to carry the appropiiations. When I 
heard that remark, I could not help being struck with the bill — which I 
ask the Secretary to read — which the senator himself introduced in the 
early part of the session," 

It was a bill offering fifteen millions of dollars to Texas, in 
consideration of her relinquishing certain territorial claims — a 
bold and a high bid. 

After Mr. Benton's bill was read by the Secretary of the Sen- 
ate, so far as to show the bid, Mr. Clay said : 

"That will do, sir. A proposition to Texas, to give her $15,000,000 
for the cession proposed by that bill to be made by her to the United 
States. Well, sir, I wish to know, what is the difierence in piinciple be- 
tween the bill of the senator, and the bill reported by the Committee ? 
* * * When the Committee concur in favor of a sum, not equal to 
that which the senator proposed, by 50 or 100 per cent., it is auctioneering 
for votes to carry the bill, while no such purpose was designed by the sena- 
tor in ofFering his bill t * * * Who is the senator that is to be pur- 
chased or auctioneered for ? Who the member of the House ? Where is 
he ? * * * I feel myself called upon to repel, as I do, any charge of 
the kind. That Committee, sir, is known to the country, and I am proud 
of the association I have had with its members, many of whom have 
served their country in the highest places of honor, abroad and at 
home." * * * 



378 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Mr. Benton replied, and reiterated the charges, concluding with 
the words, '-Now, let him call me to order." 

Mr. Clay : " Well, as the senator from Missouri wishes to be called to 
or.ler, I call him to order, and I Avill write down the words and have them 
handed to the Chair." 

When brought to the point by the Chair, as to whether Mr. 
Benton intended to be personal, or reflect on the Committee, he 
got out of the difficulty, by saying, that ''his words were con- 
fined to the hill and its effects, and that he had a right to speak 
of the effect of a measure in whatever terms he pleased,"' of which 
there could be no doubt. 

The Dubious Prospects of the Bill. 
'We cite the following senatorial colloquy, to show that sena- 
tors, friends of the bills reported by the Committee of Thirteen, 
were beginning to think what would be done if this first bill 
under debate should fail. 

On the 17th of July, Mr. Webster said : 

" I have siij)jjo.sed, if we should admit California by herself, the very 
next thiiii,' to bi- done, would be to take up the subject of the Territories. 
* * "' Hero sits the honorable member from Illinois [Mr. Douijlas], 
who is at the head of the Committee on Territories. I take it for granted he 
can say, whether I am right or not, that if we should this day admit Cali- 
fornia alone, he should to-morrow feel it his duty to bring in bills for the 
government of the Territories?" 

Mr. l)ou2:las : '* Does the senator wish me to say ?" 

Mr. Webster: "Certainly, I should like to know." 

Mr. Doun-l;is : "Mr. President, if California should be admitted bv her- 
self, I should certainly feel it to be my duty, as chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Tenitories, to move to Uike up the Territorial bills at once, and to 
put them through ; and also the Texas boundary question, and to settle 
them in detail if they are not settled in the aggregate ; and I can say, 
that such is the opinion and determination of a majority of the Com- 
mittee." 

It was evidently understood in the Senate, at this time, that 
if the bill then pending should fail, the same measures would be 
immediately brought forward each in a separate bill. 

Mil. \\ euster's Opinion of the Nashville Convf.ntion. 

Mr. Webster said : 

" 1 he Nashville atldr.'ss was a studied disunion argument, though he 
would not iiM])uto to the South generally the sentiments of the Nashville 
Convention." 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 379 

Congress has no Responsibility for Slavery in a State. 
On the 9th of July, Mr. Clay said : 

■ " Mr. President, the senatcn- from (leorgia [Mr. Berrien] has advanced a 
position wliich I oppose entirely; and what is it? That if Congress ad- 
mits Cahfornia, it admits California with her restrictions as to shivery, and 
that admitting California, with her constitution restricted as to slavery, is 
equivalent to the passage of the Wilmot Proviso. I deny it, I utterly 
deny it, sir. I am not now speaking of consequences, of effects, but of 
power, of authority. What has been the doctrine of the South throughout 
this whole controversy, for three or four years past, with regard to imposi- 
tions by Congress of restrictions upon the Territories as to slavery ? The 
doctrine of the South, and of the senator among them, has been, that 
Congress has no power over the subject — that Congress has no Constitu- 
tional power to impose the interdiction, and that if Congress does impose 
it, it is a usurpation of power. That is their doctrine — I do not mean to 
say that it is my own. My opinions have been expressed. It is not 
necessary to repeat them. But that is the doctrine of the South, and that 
is the doctrine which I am combating. Now, sir, with regard to admit- 
ting a State having itself inserted an article in her Constitution prohibiting 
slavery. Does Congress pass upon that article ? Does it pass upon any 
provision ? Can it constitutionally pass upon any provision contained in 
the Constitution of a State submitting herself- to be admitted into the 
Union ? The sole inquiry is, is it a republican Constitution or not ? That 
is the single restricted inquiry which Congress can make. If there are 
provisions of a local or municipal character, provided they do not impair 
the republican form of government, Congress is not responsible for them 
one way or the other. It is their own atfair. 

"And, sir, when speaking of the doctrine of the Soutli, let me remind 
you, that one among the wisest and mo>t eminent of Southern men [Mr. 
Calhoun], not three years ago, by a resokition submitted to this Senate, 
decl tred the doctrine to be, that a State, when forming for herself a Con- 
stitution, and proposing to come into the Union, had exclusive power to 
decide for herself, whether she would or would not have the institution 
of slavery. 

" Now, Mr. President, I am not going into that sophistry into which I 
might be led by the argument, that when Congress admits a State, and 
that S:ate has interdicted slavery, that tlierefore Congress has interdicted 
slavery. Congress has no such power. The power of Congress in the ca.se, 
is limited to ascertaining that the character of the State Constitution is 
republican. Now, sir, the difference between the case put by the senator 
from Georgia, and the case before the Senate — between the exercise of the 
power by Congress and its exercise by the State — is a case of the differ- 
ence between the usupation of power and the legal and constitutional ex- 
ercise of power by a State which has chosen to judge for itself. Ue has 



380 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

confounded usurpation and lawful autliority, legality and illegality, what 
may be done by Congress and what may be done by a State. If you can 
set up every thing, mix all the matters together, and say that right and 
wrong, authority and the absence of authority, are the same, why, then, 
the opinion might triumph that, although we are hmited to a solitary 
inquiry on the admission of a S'ate, the admission of slavery acquires a 
lefi^alitv bv our act which it would not otherwise have possessed." 

Mr. Clay's Last Great Speech on the First Bill of the 
Committee of Thirteen. 

The following extracts are made from ."\Ir. Clay's speech on 
the 22d of July, in answer to the objections which had been 
made to the bill in the conrse of this long debate, which was 
now aliont drawing to a close, and which terminated in the de- 
feat of the bill the 31st of this month — July. It should be re- 
membered, that the two bills for the fugitive slave law, and for 
the suppression of the slave-trade in the District of Colninbia, 
which were reported by the Committee of Thirteen, had not yet 
come under debate ; but that it was the bill for the admission of 
California in combination with those for settling the bounds of 
Texas, and organizing the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, 
which occupied the attention of the Senate for such a long 
period. 

On the 22d of July, Mr. Clay said : 

" I rise, Mr. President, to perform a duty which appertains to my posi- 
tion. In the progress of this debate, it has been again and again argued, 
that perfect tranquillity reigns throughout the country, and that theie is 
no disturbance threatening its peace, endangering its safety, but that which 
was produced by bus\% restless politicians. It has been maintained that 
the surface of the public mind is perfectly smooth and undisturbed by a 
single billow. I most heartily wish I could concur in this jjicture of gen- 
eral tranquillity that has been drawn upon both sides of the Senate. I am 
no alarmist ; nor, I thank God, at the advanced age to which llis Provi- 
dence has been pleased to allow me to reach, am I very easily alannoil by 
any human event. But I totally misread the signs of the times, if there 
be that state of profound peace aiitl (]uiet, that absence of all just cause of 
apprehension of future danger to this Confideracy, whicJi appear to be 
entertained by some other senators. Mr. President, all the tendencies of 
the times, I lament to say, are toward disquietude, if not more fatal conse- 
quences. Wlien, before, in the midst of profound peace with all the nations 
of the earth, have we seen a convention, representing a considerable portion 
of one great part of the I\e|)ublic, meet to deliberate on measures of future 
Biifety in connection with the great interests of that part of the country ? 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 381 

When, before, liavo we seen, not one, Imt more — some half a dozen — lei^s- 
lative bodies solemnly resolvin^^, tliat if any one of these measures — the ad- 
mission of California, the adoption of the Wilmot Proviso, or the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia — should be adopted by Congress, 
measures of an extreme character, for the safety of the great inteiests to 
■which I refer, in a particular section of tlie country, would be resorted to? 
For years, this subject of the abolition of slavery, even within this District, 
small as is the number of slaves here, has been a source of constant irrita- 
tion and disquiet. So of the subject of the recovery of fugiiive slaves — • 
not a mere border contest, as has been supposed — although there, un- 
doubtedly it has given rise to more irritation than in other portions of the 
Union — but everywhere through the slave-holding country, it has been felt 
as a great evil, a great wrong, which requires the intervention of Congress- 
ional ]iowers. But these two subjects, unpleasant as lias been the agitation 
to which they have given rise, are nothing compared to those which have 
sprung out of the acquisitions recently made from the Republic of Mexico. 
These are not only great and leading causes of just apprehension as respects 
the future, but all the minor events of the day intimate danger ahead." 

The Two Committees of Thirteen, in 1821; and in 1850, 

Compared. 

" Mr. President," said Mr. Clay, " I will not dwell upon other concom- 
itant causes all ha%'ing the same tendency, and all well calculated to awaken, 
to arouse us — if, as I hope, the fact is, we are all of us sincerely desirous 
of preserving this Union — to rouse us to dangers whicli really exist, with- 
out underrating them upon the one band, or magnifying them, on the 
other. 

" It was in this stage, or state, rather, of the Republic, that my liiend 
from Mississippi [Mr. Foote], something more than four months ago, made 
a motion for the appointment of a Committee of Thirteen. Unlike what 
occurred at an analogous period of the Repubhc, when it was my duty to 
make a similar motion in the other end of the Capitol, and when, on ac- 
count of the benefits which might result from the reconciliation of a dis- 
itracted country, the proposition was immediately adopted — on the present 
occasion, unlike what occurred at that period, the proposition of the lionor- 
able senator from Mississippi, was resisted from day to day, from week to 
week, for four or five weeks. An experiment to restore the harmony of the 
country met with the most determined and settled resistance, as if the meas- 
ure which the Committee might report, whatever might be its character, 
would not still be under the power and control of the Senate, to be dis- 
posed of according to its own best judgment. Finally, however, the mo- 
tion prevailed." 

Compliment to General Cass and other Democrats. 
" Sir, I have been in repeated consultation with my friend [General 
Cass], for so I will call him, during the progress of thif- measure, and also 



382 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

with other Democratic friends ; and he [General Cass] has shown himself 
to be the friend of the peace of his country. Repeatedly have I been in con- 
sultation with them upon the subject of this bill and the amendments which 
have been jiroposed. I regret only tTiat our consultations could not have 
been more numerous and of longer duration. On the subject of slavery, 
the treatment of California, the Territories, the fugitive slave bill, and the 
suppression of the slave-trade in this District, there is no difference of 
opinion between myself and my Democratic friends, whom I have had 
occasion to consult, but perfect union. Xot a solitary instance of party 
politics, upon which we might have heretofore differed, has been adverted 
to, in any of our consultations. We spoke of that measure which ab- 
sorbed all our thoughts, which engrossed all our hopes, which animated 
all our anxieties — the subject of pacifying, if possible, the distracted parts 
of this country — a subject upon which, between us, there was a perfect 
coincidence of opinion. * * * j^ Qm- meetings upon the subject, in 
our consultations, Democrats and WTiigs convened and consulted together. 
They threw aside, as not germane, and unworthy of their consideration, all 
the agitating party politics of the day ; and I venture to say, that in those 
meetings between my Democratic friends and myself, there was no divers- 
ity or contrariety of opinion upon the only subject that brought us to- 
gether. If I am not utterly mistaken, there is no such union and coinci- 
dence of opinion between the opponents of this bill, who, upon the very 
subject of slavery to which it relates, are as wide apart as the North and 
South poles. Whose eyes have not witnessed the consultations between 
the extremes of this chamber, from day to day ? The eyes of every dis- 
cerning senator must have noticed it. But whether in the consultations 
between those ultra gentlemen of the South, there was any mixture of the 
abolition element, I could not say. * * * 

" Mr. President, there is neither incongruity in the freight nor in the 
passengers, on board of our ' Omnibus.' We are all heartily concurrent 
upon the only topic which brought us together, and which constitutes the 
sole subject of our consultation. We have no Africans or Abolitionists in 
our ' Omnibus,' no disunionists or Free Soilers, no Jew or Gentile. Our 
passengers consist of Democrats and Whigs, who, seeing the crisis of their 
common country, and the dangers impending over ir, have met together, 
forgetting and throwing far behind them their political differences on other 
subjects, to compare their opinions on this great measure of reconciliation 
and harmony." 

Application of the Compromise Principles — When, Where, 

AND How. 

"The honorable senator from Massachusetts [^^r. Davis] says, there are 
no j>,irties who can make a compromise. Will the senator excuse mo for 
paying, that this remark snu-lls too much of the technicalities of Black- 
stone ? No parlies ! Are there not great conflicting interests, conflicting 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 383 

opinions, pervading tlie •wliole country? Who are the parties of that 
greatest of all compromises — the Constitution of the Unite^l States ? There 
were no technical parties to that instrument ; but in deliberating on what 
was best for the country, and perceiving that there were great and contlict- 
ing interests pervading all its parts, they compromised and settled them by 
ample concessions, and in the spirit of true patriotic amity. They adjusted 
those conflicting opinions ; and the Constitution under which we sit at this 
moment is the work of their hands — a great, a memorable, a magnificent 
compromise, which indicates to us the course of duty when difterences 
arise wliich can only be settled by the spirit of mutual concessions." 

The Dawn or Dat. 

" I have heard, Mr. President, that a ditierent temper prevails at this 
time — that it is possible to carry these measures, if they are presented in 
succession, just as they have been reported by the committee. I take the 
occasion to say — and I am sure I express the sentiment of every member of 
the committee — that we are not prompted by the pride of opinion, or wed- 
ded to any given system of arrangement, or settlement of these great na- 
tional questions. We preferred combining them in one measure, because 
we thought it most practical, and most likely to lead to an auspicuous 
result. But, if it can not be adopted in the conjoint form reported by the 
committee, and if the desired object can be better attained by action upon 
a series of successive measures, without the odious proviso [the Wilmot], 
not a murmur of complaint, I am quite sure, will ever be heard from a 
single member of the committee. It is not the means, it is the great spe- 
cific end, we have in view ; and however that end is attained — whether by 
such an aiTangement as this committee has proposed, or by separate acts 
of legislation — the committee and myself are utterly indifterent. But it 
is known to you that if all the measures comprised in the bill under con- 
sideration, are not passed, there is danger that in the presentation of these 
measures in detail, some of them would fail, and the result would be, that 
while one party got all that it immediately wanted, the other would obtain 
nothing which it desired. You know there was great cause to apprehend 
— I hope there may be none now — that in the separate presentation of the 
measures, the consequence would be the attachment of the Wilmot Proviso, 
in one or the other of the two Houses, and the utter failure to establish any 
territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico. It was thought, then, 
that in the spirit of our Revolutionaiy sires, in the spirit which has hereto- 
fore pervaded the history of our government, conciliating and reconcil- 
ing as much as possible opposing and conflicting interests and opinions, we 
would present a measure which would bind all, and that would lead both 
parties, as far as practicable, to unite upon it for the sake of harmony and 
tranquillity." * * * 

A Paradox. 

" This subject ha.s presented one of the most extraordinary political phe- 
nomena that I ever witnessed. Here is an almost united Senate, in favor of 



384 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

all tlie measures in detail ; in favor of the admission of California ; in favor 
of territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico, with or without that 
proviso ; in favor of the settlement of the boundary with Texas — in favor 
of all these measures in detiiil ; but opposed to them wheu they come to 
be presented to be acted upun unitedly: a<ln)itting the validity of every 
item of the account, but wlicn it comes to be footed up, denying or un-, 
willing to acknowledge the justice of paying the aggregate !" 

Intolerance of Opinion. 

" Mr. President, it is one of the peculiar circumstances attending my 
present position, as I remarked on a former occasion, that I am generally 
called upon to vindicate the measures proposed in this bill, against those 
whom we have regarded as the friends, as well as those who are considered 
as the open, avowed opponents of the measure. I anticipated the other 
day somewhat the argument which I beg leave barely to advert to now. I 
think among our Southern friends, two or three great errors are occasion- 
ally committed. They interpret the Constitution according to their views ; 
they engraft their exposition upon it ; and without listening to, or giving 
due weight to the opposite interpretations, to the conflicting exposition 
which is as honestly believed by their opponents as by themselves, they 
proclaim their own exposition of the Constitution, and cry out, ' All we 
want is the Constitution !' In the comparison and expression of opposite 
opinions, infallibility is not the lot of mortal man. It belongs only to Him 
who rules the destinies of the world ; and for any section of the Union, or 
any set of gentlemen, to rise up and say, ' The Constitution means so and 
so, and he who says otherwise, \nolates the Constitution,' is, in itself, intol- 
erant, and wanting that mutual forbearance and deference which are due 
to conflicting opinions honestly entertained by all who are sincerely aiming 
to arrive at the truth. Now, I said the other day, that the Wilmot Proviso, 
jis proposed to be enacted by Congress, and incorporated in territorial bills, 
was a question totally distinct from the insertion of a restriction of slavery 
in the Constitution formed by a newly organized State." * * '•' 

Change of Opinion on the Wilmot Proviso. 

" Now, do not our Southern friends who oppose this bill upon the ground 
that there is an interdiction to the introduction of slavery in the California 
Constitution, and that that is an interdiction exercised unlawfully by Con- 
gress, according to their views — do they not confound truth aud falsehood, 
black and white, things totally dissimilar? * ■•■ * Three years ago, two 
yeare ago, one year ago — one short year ago — the great complaint on the 
part of the slave-holding states of this Union, was the apprehended inflic- 
tion upon their interests of a restriction called the "Wilmot Proviso. "Well, 
we have met togothcr, there has been a change of public opinion, a modifi- 
cation of public oi)inion, at the North. And allow me to say, that with re- 
gard to that most important portion of our Union — its north-west section — 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 385 

that no Tiian is move entitled to honor and gratitude for this salutary change, 
than the honorable mem1)er in my eye [Mr. Cass], who represents Michigan. 
He came here with his hands tied and bound by a restriction which gave 
him no other alternative than a violation of his conscientious t^ense of duty, 
or a resignation of his seat into the liands of those who sent him here. 
But discussions have taken place in this House, in the country, in the press 
— they ran through the North, and Michigan nobly released and untied 
the hands of her senators, and left thera fiee to pursue their own best 
judgment to promote the interests of their country — and this is the feel- 
ino- of all the north-west." 

A Prediction. 

•" Let me remind those gentlemen who are desirous for the greatest ex- 
tension of the theater of slavery, of a danger — of a great and imminent dan- 
ger which they are incurring. I venture a prediction, not likely, perhaps, 
to be fulfilled or decided in the short remnant of my life — that, if Texas re- 
tains all the territory now claimed by her — nay, I go further, although the 
contingency I am about to state is less likely to happen by the curtailment 
of the boundary — I venture to say, that iu some thirty, forty, or fifty years, 
there will be no slave State in the limits of Texas at all. I venture to pre- 
dict that the Northern population — the population upon tlie uppor part of 
the Rio Grande— will, in process of time, greatly outnumber the popula- 
tion holding slaves upon the Gulf and upon the lower waters of Texas ; and 
that the majority will be found adverse to slavery, so that it will either be 
abolished, or its Hmits effectually circumscribed. This is no new opinion 
with mc. I think I gave the same opinion in a letter which I wrote some 
six years ago from Raleigh, North Carolina." 

The Federal Constitution can not carry Slavery into 
THE Territories, nor protect it there. 

" In my opinion, the supposition that the Constitution of the United 
States carries slavery into California, supposing her not to be a State, is an 
assumption totally nnwai-ranted by the Constitution. Why, sir, if the 
Constitution gives this privilege, it would be incompetent for California to 
adopt the provision which she has in her Constitution. The Constitution 
of the United States being supreme, no State could pass an enactment in 
contravention of the Constitution. My rules of interpreting the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, are the good old rules of '98 and '99. I- have 
never in my life deviated from those rules, and what are they ? The Consti- 
tution is an aggregate of ceded powers. No power is granted, except when 
it is expressly delegated, or when it is necessary and proper to carry into 
effect a delegated power. And if, in any instance, the power to carry 
slaves into the Territories is guarantied to you by the Constitution, I have 
been unable to perceive it. Amid all the vicissitudes of public life, and 
amid all the changes and turns of party, I have never in my life deviated 

25 



386 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

from those great and fundamental, and I think indisputably true, principles 
of interpreting the Constitution of the United States. Take tIio>e prin- 
ciples to be true, and where is the power — can any body point it out to 
me — which gives you a right to carry your slaves to California [as a 
Territory] ? Where is the delegated power, or the power to which it 
attaches as a necessary implication ? It is nowhere to be found. You 
must resort to some such general principles as the Federalists did in the 
early history of this country, when they contended for the doctrine of ' the 
general welfare.' But you can not put your finger on that part of the 
Constitution which conveys the right or the power to carry slaves 
from one of the States of the Union to any Territory of the United 
States." 

A DlLEM>IA. 

" I must confess, that those senators who have contended for an express 
recognition of the right to carry slaves South of that line [36° 30'], have 
contended for something much more perfect and efficient than to run a 
naked line without any such declaration. But, then, there are two con- 
siderations, which impose insuperable objections to any such recognition or 
declaration to carry slaves South of that line. The first is that you can 
not do it without an assumption of power on the part of Congress to act 
upon the institution of slavery ; and if they have the power in one way, 
they have the power to act upon it in the other way ; and the power to 
act ujjon it either way, is what you have denied, and opposed, and en- 
deavored to prevent being accomplished for the last two or three years. 
It would be an assumption, an usurpation, according to the Southern doc- 
trine, for Congress to exercise any power, either to interdict or establish 
slavery upon either side of a given line. The other objection to attempt 
to accomplish this end, is, that it is impracticable and unattainable. A 
majority neither of this Uouse, nor of the other House — not one third, 
probably, of this House, and perhaps a still smaller portion of the other 
House — could be got to affirm any right of transporting slaves [into the 
Territoiies] south of 3G° 30'. It is, then, wrong in principle, and imprao- 
ticable, and inexpedient. Why, then, let me ask, contend for a line, 
which, if attainable at all, is attainable without value, without necessity, 
without advantage to the South ? Or why attempt that which is utterly 
unattainable — a lino which should secure any express provision for the 
power or right, on the part of the slaveholder, to cany his slaves 
eouth of it ?" 

The Principle of Non-intervention by Congress in the 

Matter of Slavery. 

On the 23d of July, Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, oflercd the 
following amendment to the Territorial bill for New Mexico 
before the Senate : 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 387 

"And that all laws and usages existing in said Territory, at the date of 
its acquisition by the United States, which deny or obstruct tlie right of 
any citizen of the United States to remove to and reside in said Territory, 
with any species of property legally held in any of the States of this Union, 
be and are hereby declared to be repealed." 

Speaking on the proposed amendment, Mr. Clay said : 

" Mr. President, the great principle which pervades thoughout this bill, 
is the principle of non-intervention by Congress upon the subject of the 
institution of slavery. Now, sir, what is the amendment proposed ? It is 
better to come at once plainly to the point. If I understand precisely the 
object of the amendment, it is this : There are laws existing in California 
[not at this time admitted into the Union], and in the other Territories 
acquired from Mexico, which, according to one opinion, are supposed to 
abolish slavery. Now, Congress has no power to intervene upon the sub- 
ject of slavery, according to the Southern doctrine. How, then, can 
Congress repeal laws which have abolished slavery, and which create an 
obstruction to the transportation of slaves to those Territories ? If Con- 
gress can repeal existing laws prohibiting slavery, could not Congress 
enact laws authorizing the introduction of slavery, or, if slavery was exist- 
ing there, of abolishing slavery ? If that is so, the great principle of non- 
intervention seems to me to be as clearly violated in attempts to re- 
peal local laws [on this subject], as it could be violated in attempts, 
by the power of Congressional enactments, to introduce or prohibit 
slavery." 

We have cited the above remarks of Mr. Clay, in anticipation, 
that they might be employed in justification of the 32d section 
of the act organizing the Territory of Kansas. Clearly the Con- 
gress of 1854, in assigning " the legislation of 1850, commonly 
called the Compromise measures," as the reason or ground of 
its action in repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, was not 
entitled to go hack of that " legislation," behind those " meas- 
ures," to the debates which preceded them, for the authority 
which itself declares to issue from those acts of " legislation." 
The act of 1854 asserts a fact as authority for repealing the 
Missouri Compromise line, to wit, *' the principle of non-interven- 
tion by Congress on the subject of slavery, as recognized by the 
legislation of 1850." The principle is not a fact, but the recog- 
nition of that principle is the fact alleged ; and the recognition 
is nowhere to be found in the statute. Private opinion, uttered 
in debate, might be right, or it might be wrong ; but it would 
not be appealed to as authority for a public act. It was not 
appealed to, although this was doubtless what the author of the 



388 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

32d section had in his mind when he drew it up. He was a 
conspicuous actor in " the Compromise measures of 1850," and 
knew all about it. What ]\Ir. Clay says in the first sentence of 
the above citation from him, is doubtless true, and no man knew 
it better than the author of the 32d section of the act of 1854. 
Nevertheless, this knowledge could not authorize him to declare 
a recognition of that principle as contained in the acts of 1S50, 
and to base upon it the repeal of the Compromise line of 1820, 
when the fact of such recognition is nowhere to be found in 
those measures. 

None will deny that Mr. Clay and his coadjutors, in framing 
"the Compromise measures of 1850," most scrupulously ab- 
stained from all intervention on the institution of slavery, or that 
this extreme caution is evinced by them as by Mr. Clay in the 
passage above cited. No doubt '• the principle of non-interven- 
tion by Congress with slavery" is involved in those measures; 
but this very abstinence proves that it could not be '• recognized^'' 
as alleged in the 32d section of the act of 1854. 

But Mr. Clay's concluding words in the above citation, settle 
the question : 

" According to the Southern doctrine, Congress has no power to inter- 
vene upon the subject of slavery [in the Territories or elsewhere]. How, 
then, can Congress repeal laws [as the act of 185 i has done] which have 
abolished [or prohibited] slavery, and which create an obstruction to the 
transportation of slaves to those Territories ? If Congress can rejteal cxht- 
ing laws prohibiting slavery, could not Congress enact laws authorizing 
the introduction of slavery, or, if slavery was existing there, of abolishing 
slavery ?" 

Nothing, surely, is more evident than that the law of 1854 is 
an act of intervention by Congress on the subject of slavery, and 
a very effective one. The repeal of a law is a positive act ; and 
in this case it happened to be a law prohibiting slavery North of 
a certain hue. 

If. therefore, the 32d section of the act of 1854 is to stand as 
law, be defended as such, trampling under foot the doctrine of 
non-intervention, on which it is professedly founded, then, ac- 
cording to the reasoning of Mr. Clay, above cited, it has opened 
the door for legislation on slavery by Congress, to any extent, 
and for any purpose whatever, in the States as well as in the 
Territories. 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 389 

The Day After the Defeat of the Bill. 

In the latter part of the eighth chapter, we have stated that 
the defeat of the bill, which had been under the charge of Mr. 
Clay as Chairman of the Committee of 'Thirteen, which had so 
long occupied the attention of the Senate, was a victory — a per- 
fect triumph of Mr. Clay. So it was. Nevertheless, the victory 
was not evident to all minds at that moment. The first an- 
nouncement to the country of the defeat of the bill, was as- 
tounding ; for the country had been waiting in anxious expecta- 
tion for the passage of the measure, and it was confidently ex- 
pected. The eftect of this disappointment was so great, that 
nothing could efface the impression from the public mind. To 
this day it is extensively, if not generally supposed, that Mr. Clay 
was defeated. The measure certainly was defeated for the 
time. Rightly to understand the crisis — for such it was — de- 
mands a consideration of what preceded and of what followed. 
Mr. Clay had some misgivings, but he believed the bill would 
pass, down to the last day. This was the general feeling in the 
Senate and out of it. We have seen the colloquy between Mr. 
Webster and Mr. Douglas, a few days before the final trial on 
the bill, when the former asked the latter what he would do, 
as Chairman of the Committee of Territories, if the bill should 
fail, and we have had the answer. We have also had occasion 
to observe occasional doubts in the mind of Mr. Clay. But as 
the l)ill was expected to pass, few in the Senate or out were 
prepared for the result as it happened. 

We observe, however, that Mr. Douglas, Chairman of the 
Committee on Territories, brought in a bill for the admission of 
California, on the first of August, the day after the defeat of the 
bill in question — a very prompt action, and precisely in accord- 
ance with the question made to him by Mr. Webster : " If this 
bill should fail to-day, woidd you bring in that bill to-morrow ?" 
Mr. Douglas answered, " Yes," and he did so. 

But we think, in truth, the defeat of the bill produced a gene- 
ral consternation in both Houses of Congress, and in the country. 
Mr. Clay's long protracted argument, running through several 
months, his pleadings, his warnings, had made a deep, a profound 
impression on the Senate, on Congress, on the whole Union. 
The great majority in Congress and out, were unwilling, afraid 
to risk the consequences of the failure of these compromise 



390 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

measures. The first bill, so long debated, had failed ; Mr. Clay's 
leadership had come to an end by this event : with anxious 
mind he had done his duty, and could do no more. The whole 
responsibility, with all its tremendous weight, now fell back on 
the bosom of the Senate. They must up and be doing, or all 
was lost. They must pass the very measures which Mr. Clay 
had proposed, and so long pleaded for, if they could. Those 
measures had received their shape from Mr. Clay's hand, and the 
Senate never thought of giving them any other shape. It was 
too late, if they desired it. But they did not desire it. They 
did not dare to do it. They knew too well, that the country 
demanded those very measures, and that the people would hold 
the Senate of the United States responsible, if they should fail. 
We are not surprised, therefore, to find the bill for the admission 
of California before the Senate the very next day after the de- 
feat of the first bill reported by the Committee of Tiiirteen. On 
this day, Mr. Clay, with solemn dignity, rose in his place and 
said some very grave things in reference to the past and the 
future. 

Who Defeated the Bill. 

" I wish to say only a few words. We presented to the country a meas- 
ui-e of peace, a measure of tranquillity — one which would have harmo- 
nized, in my opinion, all the discordant feelings which prevail. That meas- 
ure has met with a fate not altogether unexpected, I admit, on my part, 
but one Avhich, as it respects the country at large, I deplore extremely. 
For myself, personally, I have no cause of complaint. The majority of 
the committee to which I belonged, have done their duty, their wliole duty, 
faithfully and perseveringly. The measure was defeated by the extremists 
on the other side of the Chamber, and on this. I shall not proceed to in- 
quire into the measure of responsibility which I incurred. All I mean to 
say upon that subject is, that we stand free and liberated from any res]>on- 
Bibility of consecjuences. How it was def.'ated, we kn-nv full well. The 
proposition of the senator from Maiyland [Mr Pearce], made, no doubt, 
U[)on a conscientious conviction of his duty, led to the defeat — was the 
immediate cause of it. That proposition led to consequences which are 
fresh in the recollection of the Senate." * * * 

The Contingencies of the Future. 

"Now, Mr. rrcsident, I stand here in my place, meaning to bo unawed 
by any thn-ats, whether they come from individuals, or from States. I 
should dej)lore, as much fis any man, living or dead, that armies should bo 
raised against the authority of the Union, either by individuals or States. 



THE COMPROMISK OF 1850. 391 

But, after all that has occurred, if any one State, or a portion of the peo- 
ple of any State, choose to place themselves in military army aj^^ainst the 
Government of the Union, I am for tryiiii;: the strength of the Govern- 
ment. [Applause in the galleries.] I am for ascertaining whether we have 
got a Government or not — practical, efficient, capable of maintaining its 
authority, and upholding the powers and interests which belong to a gov- 
ernment. Now, sir, am I to be alarmed or dissuaded from any such course 
by intimations of the spilling of blood? If blood is to be spilt, by whose 
fault will it be ? Upon the supposition, I maintain it will be the fault of 
those who raise the standard of disunion, and endeavor to prostrate this 
Government ; and, sir, when that is done, so long as it pleases God to give 
me a voice to express my sentiments, and an arm, weak and enfeebled 83 
it may be by age, that voice and that arm will be on the side of my coun- 
try, for the support of the general authority, and for the maintenance of 
the powers of this Union." [Applause in the galleries]. 

The Chair : " Order !" 

Mr. Walker : " If any thing ever gave me pleasure, it is to hear such 
sentiments as the senator from Kentucky has spoken, applauded, though I 
do not say it for the purpose of encouraging it." 

Mr. Clay still Hopes. 

Mr. Clay : " Mr. President, I have done all — I am willing to do all that 
is in the power of man to do, to accommodate the differences of the 
country. I have not been attached to any given form of settling our 
troubles and of restoring contentment to the Union. I was wilUing to 
take the measures united. I am willing now to see them pass separate 
and distinct, and I hope they may be passed so, without that odious Pro- 
viso which has created such a sensation in every quarter of the Union. But 
whether passed or not, I repeat the sentiment, if resistance is attempted to 
any authority of the countr}', by any State, or by any people of any State, 
I will raise my voice, my heart, and arm, in the support of the common 
authority of the General Government. Nor am T apprehensive that blood 
is to be slied. From the bottom of my heart I hope it never will be. But 
if it should, who will be responsible ? Those who attempt to prostrate the 
general authority upon the supposition I have made — that a single State 

if there shall be one — or the people of any State, choose to raise the 

standard of disunion, and attempt to destroy this Union by force. God 
knows I should deplore it. But if it must occur, I will be among the last 
who will give up the effort to maintain the Union in its entire, full, and 
vioforous authority. 

" Sir, these threats are not so alarming or so dangerous, as some m their 
imagination may suppose. We have had an event of the kind in our his- 
tory. When Washington was our President — now sixty years ago — the 
standard of insurrection was raised in the western part of I'ennsylvania. 
The army of the United States moved forward for the purpose of subduing 
it. There was some little blood shed in the house of Colonel Neville. 



392 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

But tlie insurgents then — as disunionists and traitors always will — fled 
fi-oin tho approach of the flag of the Union, supported by the authority of 
tlie Union, and countenanced by the Father of the Union." 

A Weighty Responsibility. 

They who recollect the doings of the Nashville Convention, 
so lately held, and which represented the South generally, will 
appreciate the portentous position of the country at this moment, 
on t!ie contingency that these Compromise measures of Mr. Clay 
could not be passed. 

It will have been seen, in the above remarks of Mr. Clay, 
that he held the senator from Maryland [Mr. Pearce], to a very 
serious account for the loss of the bill the day before. It was 
the more serious and the more to be regretted, because Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Pearce had always acted in the same party, and be- 
cause Mr. Clay had relied on Mr. Pearce as a friend of the bill. 

Mr. I'earce rose and said : '' The senator from Kentucky has said, that 
the amendment which I offered to the Senate vesterdav, was the direct 
cause of the defeat of the bill." 

Mr. Clay (in his seat) : '' The immediate cause." 

Mr. Pearce: "The immediate cause. I admit that the defeat of the 
bill was subsequent to my amendment. But I am not willing that the 
defeat of the bill should be laid at my door, unless I am justly chargeable 
■with it. From any just responsibility I will not shrink. * * * To 
this bill, as introduced by the Committee, I had given a cordial assent. 
* * * The bill defeated yesterday was not the bill which it was on 
Tuesday last. * * * The form the bill assumed after tho amendment 
of the senator from Georgia [Mr. Dawson] was not what we had been dis- 
cussing for months, * * * i told the senator from (Jeorgi;i, wheu he 
presented the amendment, that it would defeat the bill. I told the 
senator from Mississippi [Mr. Foote] that I should be forced to vote 



against it." 



Mr. Foote : " At the inter\ncw to which the senator alludes I supposed 
it was the ainendment, not the bill, in opposition to which he would 
vote." 

Mr. Pearce : " It [my course] pr<.>iluced the defeat of the bill, it is said ; 
but if the senator from Texas had thought proper to accept the proposition 
I offered, this would not ha\e been the result." 

Mr. Pearce sent the following note to the reporter of his re- 
marks on this occasion, that it might appear with them : 

"The amendment of tho senator from Georgia was carried, not by the 
fi-ionds of the bill, but by a portion of the friends of tho bill uniting with 
a largo number of senators known to be opposed to the bill. The votes 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 393 

of twelve senatoi's known to be opposed to the bill, were cfivcn to this 
amendment, besides tlie vote of the senator from Alabanri [Mi-. King], the 
senator from Georgia [Mr. 13ernen], and the senator from Texas, whose 
sup[)ort of (lie measure was contingent, though they were anxious to 
adjust ihe dispute ; so that not half of those Avho voted for the 
amendment of the senator from Georgia, were decided friends of 
the bill." 

Mr. Pearce said : 

" I will not shrink from the responsibility, and I will never cease to de- 
fend and vindicate my course." 

Mr. Clay : " Nor will I, sir. It belongs to the history of the country, 
and it will go out. With regard to the senator's motion, and his ready 
and fearless encounter of the responsibility, I say nothing. I suppose upon 
that subject he is like most other men. But I repeat what I said, that the 
immediate cause of the loss of the bill, was the amendment of the hon- 
orable senator [Mr. Pearce]. I make no reproaches against him. * * * 
Still the truth remains, and the se.iator has told us tint he has no ob- 
jection to assume the whole responsibility. * * ''' When the amend- 
ment was offered by the senator fiom (Georgia, the senator [Mr. Pearce] 
did not oppose it by any speech. He did not say what he said yesterday. 
He made no intimation so serious to that amendment, that, if adopted, the 
consequence might be the loss of his vote. P)Ut that is not all. Now, sir, 
I want to call the attention of the seiiator to his own course yesterday, upon 
this subject. Three times was the senator approached with amendments 
containing, I believe, substantially the veiy object which lie was desirous 
to accomplish. One was taken from my chair to him. The second was 
given to him by his neighbor, the senator from Illinois [Mr. Douglas], who 
had obtained the previous consent of the senators from Texas. There were 
one or two others. The senator declined ti) accept of any amendment, but 
persisted in his own, and that persistence led to the consequences to which 
I have alluded. Not only did he fail to take the suggestions of the friends 
of the bill, but when the senator from Florida [Mr. Yulee], one of the 
most determined opponents of the bill, asked him to divide his motion, 
which was inseparable by the rules of the Senate, the moment the appeal 
was made, he yielded to his wishes. If he had persevered in his own mo- 
tion to strike out and insert, I doubt if the result would have been the 
same. These are facts, none of which, I presume, the senator is disposed, 
to call in question. I make no reproaches to the senator. I have no doubt 
he has acted upon conscientious motives, nor do I doubt of his willingness 
to meet all the responsibility. But, having been charged with this bill, 
being chairman of the committee \\ho ivported it, I thought it right the 
country sIkhiM know the circumstances under wtiieli it was lost." 

Mr. Pearce replied with considerable ability, and concluded 
with the following remark : 



394 THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

" If you go back to the remote cause of the defeat of the bill, it rests on 
the ameiidiiK'nt of the senator from Georgia, to which the senator from 
Keutiifky yielded." 

How far the senator from Maryland was influenced in his 
course on this occasion, by the humor manifested in the follow- 
ing sentences, it may not, perhaps, be easy to divine : 

"Sir, I know very well I am too humble a member of this body, to be 
consulted by any one as to what he should do ; but, if I had been con- 
sulted in regard to this amendment [Mr. Dawson's], I should have stated 
frankly, that I was opi)osed to it, and could not sustain it. But being too 
obscure to be consulted, and not having been consulted, this amendment 
was sprung on me, and I thought it my duty to oppose it in the best way 
I could." 

Most assuredly, this would have been a fearful way of show- 
ing one's power, and not less fearful in its responsibility, if the 
Senate had not afterward enacted each of tlie measures con- 
tained in this bill, and if the contingencies so much feared by 
Mr. Clay, had come on the coiuitry. 

There is no doubt that Mr. Dawson's amendment vitiated the 
bill very essentially — more, perhaps, than Mr. Clay himself was 
aware of at the moment it was under consideration ; for it might 
have left New Mexico under military rule, which, as we have 
seen, Mr. Clay was altogether opposed to. But it had passed, 
and could not, as we suppose, be reconsidered. Should the bill . 
be sacrificed for that ? Mr. Clay and its other friends did not 
think so. But the senator from Maryland thought proper to 
brave the responsibility of defeating the measure, 

Mn. Clay Rebukes the Southern Senators for their Oppo- 
sition TO the Bill. 

" There is a language too often employed by senators now and here- 
tofore speaking fur the South — 'The South, the whole South.' Sir, I 
should think it would be very fortunate, if senatoi-s were always confident 
that they were able to rei)resent the sentiments of their own particular 
State, without attempting to speak of States wliose respective domains are 
exterior to their own. Now, I speak in no unkind spirit toward the sen- 
ator from Virginia ; lait I Ix-lieve that, if the people of Virginia had been 
here, four fifths of them would have voted for that Compromise measure 
wliich th>' si-nator from Virginia has felt it his duty to oppose. I know 
that the opportunities of the senator from Virginia are nmch better than 
my own to obtain information of their wishes ; but I profess to know 
something of the State that gave me birth, and I believe that if the people 



THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 395 

of Virijinia were to be polled to-morrow, three fourths or four fifths of 
them would be found to be in favor of that measure. Now, sir, do the 
honorable senators from Virginia and South Carolina imag-ine that, when 
they return to their consfituoiits with the opposite opinions prevailing upon 
the subject of this Cumproinise, of this olive-branch held out to the whole 
Union — do they expect to be able to have the sword drawn against the 
Union, amid such a conflict of oi)inions as will arise in the slave holding 
States, upon the very ground of the rejection of this Compromise ?" 

Nullification — Civil War. 

" Mr. President, I have said that I want to know whether we are bound 
together by a rope of sand, or an ettective, capable Government, competent 
to enforce the powers therein vested by the Constitution of the United 
States? And what is the doctiine of Nullification, set up again, revived, 
resuscitated, neither enlarged nor improved, nor extended in this new 
edition of it ? That when a single State shall undertake to say, that a law 
passed by the twenty-nine States is unconstitutional and void, she may 
raise the standard of resistance, and defy the twenty-nino. Sir, I denied 
the doctrine twenty years ago — I deny it now — I will die in denying it. 
There is no such principle. If a State chooses to assume the attitude of 
defiance to the sovereign authority, and set up a separate nation against 
the nation of twenty-nine States, it takes the consequences upon itself, and 
the question is reduced to this : Shall the twenty-nine yield to one, or the 
one yield to the twenty-nine 1 Call it by what mystic name you please — 
a State, a corporation, a sovereignty — whatever force of a State is put in 
array against the authority of the Union, it nmst submit to the conse- 
quences of revolt, as every other community nmst submit when a revolt is 
made. 

" Gentlemen lay to their souls the flattering unction that the army is 
composed of officers from Virginia, South Carolina, and other Southern 
States, and the army will not draw their swords. What, sir, the army of 
the United States under the command of the Chief Magistrate of the 
United States — under the command of the gallant oflacer recently making 
the conquest of Mexico — not do their duty ? Gentlemen will find them- 
selves utterly mistaken, if such a state o^things arises." 

What is Patriotism? 

"But we are told this story of Bernadotte, and I may say I did not put 
the case of Virginia. I respect her. I venerate her. She is my parent, 
and I have always feelings toward her which are inspired in the filial 
bosom toward its parent. I did not put the case of Virginia by name. 
The honorable senator from South Carolina put his words in my mouth, when 
he made me refer to his State. But if any State chooses to array itself in 
authority, and give orders to its citizens to srt themselves in military or 
hostile array against the Union, the Union is gone, or the resistance must 



396 MR. BENTON ON THE 

cease. The honorable senator tells us of the story of Bernadotte, who, 
when he came to the confines of France, was unwillinor to invade his 
native country. Let me remind the senator of a case much more anal- 
ogous to true repuUicau liberty doctrine than the case of the Kiuff of 
Sweden, who was made such under the authority of Bonaparte, whom he 
resisted. I admire more that Roman father who, for the sake of Rome, 
condemned and caused to be executed his own son. That is my notion 
of liberty. 

"And with respect to my country, the honorable senator speaks of 
Virginia bei.ig my country. This Union, sir, is my country ; the thirty 
States are my countiy ; Kentucky is my country ; and Virginia no more 
than any other of the States of this Union. She has created on my part 
obligations, and feelings, and duties toward her in my private character, 
which nothing upon earth would induce me to forfeit or violate. But even 
if it were my own State — if my own State, lawlessly, contrary to her duty, 
should raise the standard of disunion against the residue of the Un'on, I 
would go against her. I would go against Kentucky herself in that con- 
tingency, much as I love her." 

Mr. Benton on the Fugitive Slave Law. 

The following extract is from the pen of the Hon. Thomas 
H. Benton. We do not insert it as adopting all its reasoning, 
but to verify what wo have elsewhere stated,* that ]Mr. Clay 
had nothing to do in the constrnction or passage of this law, to 
corroborate some other statements we have made regarding it, 
and to give some fiuther light as to its history and character : 

"The Pennsylvania act [of 1847] did not remain a dead leltcr upon her 
statute book ; a citizen of Maryland, acting under the federal law of '93, in 
re-capturing his slave, was prosecuted under tlie kilnapping clause of the 
State act of '47 — convicted — and sentenced to its penalties. Tlie constitu- 
tionality of this enactment was in vain pleaded in the Pennsylvania court: 
but her authorities acted in the spirit of deference and respect to the 
authoiities of the Union, and concurred in an " ayreed case^^ to be carried 
before the Supreme Court of the United Slates, to test the constitutionality 
of the Pennsylvania law. That court decided fully and promptly all the 
points in the case, and to the full vindication of all the rights of a slave- 
holder, under the reception clause in the constitution. The jwints decided 
cover the whole ground, and, besides, showed precisely in what particular 
the act of 1793 required to be amended, to Va:ike it work out its coTuplete 
effect under the constitution, independent of all extrinsic aid. The points 
were these : 



t( 1 ' 



'TIic ])r.>vision of the act of the l'2th of February, 1793, relative to 
fugitive slaves, is clearly Constitutional in all its leading provisions; and, 

* Pages 288, 365, 4 367. 



FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 397 

indeeil, with the exception of tliat part which confers autliority on State 
maii'istratcs, is free from reasonable floubt or difficulty. As to the au- 
thority so conferred on State niaf,nstrates, wliile a difference of opinion 
exists, ajid may exist on this point, in different States, whether State mag- 
istrates are bound to act under it, none is entertainerl by the court, that 
State magistrates may, if they choose, exercige that authority, uidess forbid 
by State legislation.' ' The power of legislation in relation to fugitives from 
labor, is exclusive in the national legislature.' 'The right to seize and 
retake fugitive slaves, and the duty to deliver them up, in whatever State 
of the Union they may be found, is, under the Constitution, recognized as 
an absolute, positive right and duty, pervading the whole Union with an 
equal and su])reme force ; uncontrolled and uncontrollable by State sove- 
reignty or State legislation. Tlie right and duty are co-cxtensive and uni- 
form in remedy and operation throughout the whole Union. The owner 
has the same exemption from State regulations and control, through how- 
ever many States he may pass with the fugitive slave in his possession, in 
transitu, to his doniicil.' 'The act of the legislature of Pennsylvania, on 
which the indictment against Edward Rigg, for carrymg away a fugitive 
slave, is found, is unconstitutional and void. It purports to ])nnish, as a public 
offense against the State, the very act of seizing anii removing a slave l)y his 
master, which the Constitution of the United States was designed to justify 
and uphold.' 'The Constitutionality of the act of Congress (1V9.3) re- 
lating to fugitives from labor, has been affirmed by the adjuilications of 
the State tribunals, and by those of the courts of the United States.' 

" This decision of the Supreme Court — so clear and full' — was further 
valuable in making visible to the legislative authority wliat was wanting to 
give efidcacy to the act of 1793 ; it was nothing but to substitute federal 
commissioners for the State officers forbidden to act under it ; and that 
substitution might have been accomplished in an amendatory bill of some 
three or four lines — leaving all the rest of the act as it was. Uufortu- 
nately, Congress did not limit itself to an emendation of the act of 1793 ; 
it made a new law — long and complex — and striking the public mind as a 
novelty. It was early in the session of 1849-50 that the Judiciary Com- 
mittee of the Senate reported a bill on the subject ; it was a bill long and 
complex, and distasteful to all sides of the chamber, and lay upon the table 
six months untouched. It was taken up in the last weeks of a nine 
months' session, and substituted by another bill, still longer and more com- 
plex. This bill also was veiy distasteful to the Senate (the majority) — and 
had the singular fate of being supported in its details, and passed into law, 
with less than a quorum of the body in its favor, and without ever receiv- 
ing the full senatorial vote of the slave States. The material votes upon it 
before it was passed, were on propositions to give the fugitive a jury trial, 
if he desired it, upon the question of his condition — free or slave ; and 
upon the question of giving hfin the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus. 
The first of these propositions originated with jVIr. Webster, but was off"ered 
in his absence by Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey. He [Mr. Webster] drew 
up a brief bill, early in the session, to supjdy the defect found in the work- 
ing of the act of '93 ; it was short and simple ; but it contained a proviso 
in favor of a jury trial when the fugitive denied his servitude. That would 



398 MR. BENTON ON THE 

have been about always ; and this jury trial, besides being incompatible 
with the Constitution, and contradictory to all cases of proceeding against 
fugitives, would have been pretty sure to have been fatal to the pursuer's 
claim ; and certainly both expensive and troublesome to him. It was con- 
trary to the act of 1Y93, and contrary to the whole established course of 
reclaiming fugitives, which is always to carry them back to the place from 
which they fled, to be tried. Thus, if a man commits an offonse in one 
county, and flies to another, he is carried back ; so, if he flies from one 
State to another ; and so in all the extradition treaties between foreign na- 
tions. All are carried back to the place from which they fled, the only 
condition being to establish the flight and the probable cause ; and that in 
the case of fugitives from labor, as well as from justice, both of which 
cases are put together in the Constitution of the United States, and in the 
Fugitive Act of 1793. The proposition was rejected by a vote of eleven 
to twenty-seven. The yeas were : Messrs. Davis, of Massachusetts, Dayton, 
Dodge, of Wisconsin, Greene, Ilamlin, Phelps, Smith, Upham, Walker, of 
Wisconsin, and Winthrop. The nays were : Messrs. Atchison, Badger, 
Barnwell, Bell, Benton, Berrien, Butler, Cass, Davis, of Mississippi, Daw- 
son, Dodge, of Iowa, Downs, Houston, Jones, of Iowa, King, Mangum, 
Mason, Morton, Pratt, of Maryland, Piusk, Sebastian, Soule, Sturgeon, 
Tuiney, Underwood, Wales, Yulee. The motion in favor of granting the 
benefit of the writ of habeas corpus to the fugitive was made by Mr. Win- 
throp, and rejected by the same vote of eleven yeas and twenty-seven nays. 
Other amendments were oflfered and disposed of, and the question coming 
on the passing of the bill, Mr. Cass, in speaking his own sentiments in fa- 
vor of merely amending the act of I'/QS, also spoke the sentiments of 
many others, saying : 

" ' Wlien this subject was before the Compromise Committee, there was 
a geneaal wish, and in that I fully concun-ed, that the main features of 
the act of 1793 upon this subject, so far as they were applicable, should be 
preserved, and that such changes as experience has shown to be necessary 
to a fair and just enforcement of the provisions of the Constitution for the 
surrender of fugitive slaves, should be introduced by way of amendment. 
That law was approved by AVashington, and has now been in force for 
sixty years, and lays down, among others, four general principles, to which 
I am prepared to adhere : 1. The right of the master to arrest his fugitive 
slave wherever he may find him. 2. His duty to carry him before a mag- 
istrate in the State where he is arrested, that the claim may be adjudged 
by him. 3. The duty of the magistrate to examine the claim, and to de- 
cide it, like other examining magistrates, without a jury, and then to com- 
mit him to the custody of the master. 4. The right of the master then to 
remove the slave to his residence. At the time this law was passed, every 
justice of the peace throughout the UnioYi was required to execute the 
duties under it. Since tlioii, as we all know, the Supreme Court has de- 
cided that justices of tlie peace can not be called upon to execute this law, 
and the consequence is, that they have almost everywhere refused to do so. 
The master sei-king his slave, found hisremedv a gooil one at the time, but 
now very itielVeetual ; and this defect is one that imperiously requires a 
remedy. And this remedy I am willing to provide, fairly and honestly, 



FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 399 

and to make such other provisions as may be proper and necessary. But 
I desire for myself that the orii,nnal act should remain upon tlie statute- 
book, and tliat tlie changes shown to be necessary should be made by way 
of amendment.' 

" The vote on the passing of the bill was twenty-seven to twelve, the 
yeas being : Messrs. Atchison, Badger, Barnwell, Bell, Berrien, Butler, Davis, 
of Mississippi, Dawson, Dodge, of Iowa, Downs, Foote, Houston, Hunter, 
Jones, of Iowa, King, Mangum, Mason, Pearce, Rusk, Sebastian, Soule, 
Spruance, Sturgeon, Turney, Underwood, Wales and Yulee. The nays were : 
Messrs. Baldwin, Bradbury, Cooper, Davis, of Massachusetts, Dayton, Dodge, 
of Wisconsin, Greene, of Kliode Island, Smith, Upham, Walker and Win- 
throp. Above twenty senators did not vote at all upon the bill, of whom 
Mr. Benton was one. Nearly the whole of these twenty would have voted 
for an amendment to the act of 1V9.3, supplying federal officers in place of 
the State officers who were to assist in its execution. Some three or four 
lines would have done that ; hut instead of this brief enactment to give 
effect to an ancient and well-known law, there was a long bill of ten sec- 
tions, giving the aspect of a new law ; and with such multiplied and com- 
plex provisions as to render the act inexecutable, except at a cost and 
trouble which would render the recovery of little or no value ; and to be 
attended with an array and machinery which would excite disturbance, and 
scenes of force and violence, and render the law odious. It passed the 
House, and became a law^, and has verified all the objections taken to it. 
It has been worth but little to the slave States in recovering their property, 
and has been annoying to the free States from the manner of its execu- 
tion, and is considered a new act, though founded upon that of '93, which 
is lost and hid under it. The wonder is how such an act came to pass, 
even by so lean a vote as it received-^for it was voted for by less than half 
the Senate, and by six less than the number of senators from the Slave 
States alone. It is a wonder how it passed at all, and the wonder increases 
on knowing that, of the small number that voted for it, iii.iii\ were against 
it, and merely went along with those who had constituted themselves the 
particular guardians of the rights of the slave States, and claimcl a lead 
in all that concerned them." 

Mr. Benton's reasoning on the transfer of venue, from the 
place where the fugitive slave is arrested, for a trial in the slave 
State where he is claimed, is far from heing conclusive with the 
people of free States, inasmuch as the latter can not feel, that 
fugitives from justice stand on the same ground with fugitives 
from bondage. The common law of the civilized world is 
against fugitives from justice, and is interested in their extradi- 
tion ; whereas, the same law pronounces every man free as the 
owner of himself. It is true that in the United States, there is 
an exception to this rule ; but still it is an exception ; and the 



400 CORRESPONDENCE 

common law prevails, until the exception be proved. Outside of 
the jurisdiction of slave States, common law is not on the side 
of the claimant of a fugitive slave, as of a fugitive from justice ; 
but it is against such a claimant : and he can only enforce his 
claim, by the special legislation in his favor, and where such 
legislation is applicable. It is applicable wherever the master' 
can find his runaway slave within the jurisdiction of the United 
States, and it can be enforced by the appointed agencies of 
Federal law. But if the alleged fugitive be found in a free 
State, he is presumed to be a free man; and freedom, as opposed 
to property in man, is held to be of such great price in the free 
States, it would be unreasonable to expect that the people of 
those States would ever look upon a fugitive from bondage in 
the same light in which they look upon a fugitive from justice, 
or that they should ever think that the summary mode of extra- 
dition which is applicable to criminals, is a fair way of treating 
a man, against whom the only crime alleged is, that he claims 
to own himself. Mr. Benton may think the cases analogous ; 
but as slavery is exceptional in relation to the general condition 
of civilized society, so are the laws which sustain and protect it. 
A fugitive from bondage is not an oflender against the laws of 
general society like the fugitive from justice, but only against the 
municipal regulations of the State from which he escapes. He 
is lial)le only to the arrest of Federal law enacted for his recov- 
ery. The consent is luiiversal for the arrest of a fugitive from 
justice, but not so of a fugitive from bondage. Therefore the 
cases are not analogous. 

A Letter from Mr, Clay to nis Fellow-citizens in 

New York. 

The following correspondence between Mr, Clay and numerous 
citizens of New York, though it look place more than a year 
after the legislative consummation of the Compromise measia-es 
of 1850, has such an intimate afiluity and is so consistent with 
the topics presented in the preceding extracts from ^Ir, Clay's 
speeches on those measures, that we think it droper to give it a 
place in this connection, 

" Hon, JIknkv Clay, AsIiI.-ukI, Kontucky :* 

" Ilespocted and Dear Sir : — There are periods in the history of 
nations, when the bold niul luaulv counsel, tlie sacfacious foresidit, and 

* The date of thia adtlrcss is not given ; but the date of the answer indicates 
tliat it was sent to Mr. Clay iu Llie autimm of 1851. 



OF MR. CLAY. 401 

the timely and perseveriiiG: efforts of the firm and patriotic statesman can 
succeed in aveitino: a fearful crisis; at the same time the warninfr voice of 
the wise and the good may require to be repeated and uplifted, until it 
shall resniud tliroughout the land. 

" Youi' introduction of tlie Compromise measures into the Senate of 
the United States, and their pa^^sage by Cons^ress, marked an epoch in 
our history ; tliey arrested the nearer approach of national calamity, and, 
as was fondly hoped, laid the foundation for returning harmony. 

" It has since, however, become but too apparent, that continued and 
unremitted efforts in favor of Union sentiments are necessary to resist 
the current of error, and secure the maintenance of sound principles of 
attachment tc the Constitution, in order that our country may reap the 
blessed fruits that were expected from the Compromise of peace. 

"Several of your noble coadjutors in the cause of the Union have 
already addressed the people, and are now addressing them, in words of 
truth and patriotism, of eloquence and power ; and we have thought it 
right to appeal to the senator from Kentucky, and entreat, that one whoso 
voice has been so often raised in defense of the people's rights, may not be 
silent now. 

" We have a well-founded conviction that the great body of the Ameri- 
Cfin people are in favor of maintaining and enforcing the Compromises of 
the Constitution ; nevertheless, in the resolutions and addresses adopted 
at conventions lately assembled around us, we have seen with regret, as 
well as alarm, that the question of adherence to the Compromise measures 
is avoided or evaded, that modification and amendment are declared to be 
requisite, and repeal, itself, admissible ; as if the requirement of the Consti- 
tution, in carrying out an integral part of our national compact, was of no 
higher obligation than any ordinary act of legislation. 

" It is evident, therefore, that there requires to be^nore generally dif- 
fiised a spiiit that will not tamper with politicians wSWb course must inev- 
itably lead to the destruction of the Constitution — a spirit that will not 
hold communion with those who advance and support doctrines, in rela- 
tion to the great national adjustment, fatal to the future peace and har- 
mony of the Union ; who merely acquiesce because they have no alterna- 
tive, while, on all important occasions, they too plainly disclose, under a 
flimsy vail of apparent contentment, a determination to resist and oppose 
the efforts of the friends of the Compromise and the Union. 

"We feel confident that you will not favor the abettors of such doc- 
trines, but rather reprove and denounce them. We therefore respectfully 
but earnestly ask of you to leave, for a time, your retreat in Kentucky, to 
appear among us at Xew York. 

'•The people are profoundly grateful for your past efforts, and arc 
proud and willing to acknowledge your timely and efficient services. 
They know and honor your Union principles and your national senti- 
ments ; and none are more deeply penetrated by these feelings, nor more 

desirous to acknowledge these obligations, than your fellow-citizens gen- 

26 



402 A LETTER OF 

erally of this commercial emporium ; aud did we not think that the 
present crisis required your warning voice, your presence and your name, 
to arouse vour countrymen to a sense of their dutv and their dausfer, we 
would not attempt to disturb the repose of the sage of Ashland. 

" George Griswold, 

" Stephen Whitney, 

" Daniel Ullmann, 

" And three hundred and eight others." 

A committee of these three hundred and eleven citizens of 

New York, addressed an official note to ]\Ir. Clay, to which the 

following is an answer : 

"Ashland, 3d October, 1851. 
" Gentlemen — 

" I have duly received your official letter, transmitting an address, 
numerously signed by my fellow-citizens of New York, inviting me to 
visit that city, and address a public meeting on some of the public and ex- 
citing topics of the day ; and you are pleased to add an expression of your 
own kind wishes that I would accept the invitation. I should be most 
happy, if I felt myself in a condition to do so ; but, for the reasons a&- 
signed in my answer to the address, which is herewith forwarded, 1 am 
very sorry that it is not in my power to accept it. I hope that answer 
may be deemed satisfactory by you, and by those whom you represent. 

"I have the honor to be, gentlemen, with high respect. Your obedient 
servant, " H. Clay. 

" To Messrs. Geo. Griswold, Stephen Whitney, 
A. C. Kingsland, Chas. M. Leupp, and Jas. 
De p. Ogden, &c., &c." 

The following is the answer to the address so numerously 
signed : ^ 

Ashland, 3d October, 1851. 
" Gentlemen — 

" I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, yesterday, of the address 
which you transmitted to me, from a number of gentlemen in tlie citv of 
New York. Emanating from a source so highly respectable and impos- 
ing, from friends and fellow-citizens so numerous and intelligent, and to 
whom I am under such great obligations, I have perused it with profound 
attention and deference. After adverting to the present state of public 
affaii-s, to the spirit adverse to the measures of compromise adopted during 
the last Congivss, which prevails in certain quarters, to the necessity of 
unremitted exertions to preserve our glorious Union, aud to what has been 
so seasonably and well done, with so much ability, eloquence and patriotism, 
by some of our eminent countrymen, you invite me to leave, for a time, 
my quiet abode here, to appear in your great city, anil to address my 
fellow-citizens on the actual condition, and menaciunf dansrer of our 
country. 



MK. CLAY. 403 

" I feol, gentlemen, with the greatest interest and the deepest solicitude, 
the full force of all that}OU have expressed ; and I would gladly comply with 
your wishes, and even dedicate the remnant of a life, the largest and best 
part of which has been spent in the public service, to the cause of the 
Union, if the state of my health would allow me, and if 1 believed that any 
fresh exertions of mine would be useful. But ever since the long session 
of the last Congress, during which my arduous duties were greater than 1 
was well able to encounter, my health has been delicate, and it has remained 
so throughout the past summer. I liope that it is improving, but it still 
requires the most assiduous care ; and I entertain serious apprehensions that 
if I were to accept your invitation, and throw myself into the scenes of ex- 
citement incident to it, my strength might fail me, and my present debility 
might be much increased. There is no place, I am fully aware, where I 
should find more ardent and enthusiastic friends in one party, and more 
courtesy and respect in the other, than in the commercial metropolis of the 
Union. Wliile I am constrained, with much regret, respectfully to de- 
cline the meeting you propose, I avail myself of the occasion to present 
some views which I have taken of public affairs, and wliich I trust may be 
received as a substitute for any oral exhibition of them, which I could 
make before a large concourse of my fellow-citizens in New York. 

" It was not*^ supposed by the authors and supporters of the compromise, 
in the hist Congress, that the adoption of the series of measures which 
composed it, would secure the unanimous concurrence of all. Their rea- 
sonable hopes -were confined to the great majority of the people of the 
United States, and their hopes have not been disappointed. Everywhere, 
north, south, east and west, an immense majority of the people are satisfied 
with, or acquiesce in, the compromise. This may be confidently asserted 
in regard to thirteen of the slave-holding States, and to thirteen, if not 
fourteen, of the free States. In a few of both classes of the States, and in 
some particular localities, dissatisfaction exists, exhibiting itself occasion- 
ally in words of great violence and intemperance ; but this feeling is, I 
trust, where it has most prevailed, gradually yielding to an enlightened 
sense of public duty. I will present a rapid survey of the actual state of 
things, as it appears to me, both at the North and the South, beginning at 
the former. 

"In all that region, there is but one of the various compromise measures 
that is seriously assailed, and that is the law, made in strict conformity 
with the Constitution, for the surrender of fugitives from lawful service or 
labor. But the law itself, with two exceptions, has been everywhere en- 
forced ; opposition to it is constantly abating, and the patriotic obligations 
of obeying the Constitution and the laws, made directly or indirectly by 
the people themselves, are now almost universally recognized and admitted. 
If, in the execution of the law, by the public authority, popular discontent 
is sometimes manifested, it has, with the exceptions mentioned, been inva- 
riably repressed, or prevented from obstructing the officers of justice in 
the performance of their official duties. If I am correctly informed, a 



404 A LETTER OF 

great and salutary change lias been made, and is yet in progress, at the 
North, which authorizes the confident anticipation that reason and law will 
finally achieve a noble triumph. 

"The necessity of maintaining and enforcing that law, unrepealed, and 
without any modification that would seriously imj)air its efficiency, must be 
admitted by the impartial judgment of all candid men. Many of the 
slave-holding States, and many public meetings of the people in them, 
have deliberately declared that their adherence to the Union depended 
upon the preservation of that law, and that its abandonment would be the 
sio-nal of the dissolution of the Union. I know that the abolitionists 
(some of whom openly avow a desire to- produce that calamitous event), 
and their partizans deny and deride the existence of any such danger ; but 
men who will not perceive and own it, must be blind to the signs of the 
times, to the sectional strife which has unhappily arisen, to the embittered 
feelings which have been excited, ;!s well as the solemn resolutions of de- 
liberative assemblies, unanimously adopted. Their disregaid of the danger, 
I am apprehensive, proceeds more from their desire to continue agitation, 
which augments it, than from their love of the Union itself. 

" You refer, gentlemen, to ' resolutions and addresses adopt^^d at conven- 
tions lately assembled around us, in which we have seen with regret as 
well as alarm, that the question of adherence to *he compromise is avoided 
or evaded,' and you justly deprecate the tendency of these resolutions. I 
have not been an inattentive or inditl'erent observer of them, and with you 
I dee]>ly regret their adoption. I wish that these respectable bodies could 
have been less ambiguous, and more explicit, in declaring their determina- 
tion to acquiesce in, and abide by, a groat measure of peace and com- 
promise, which, forming an epoch in the progress of our country, was in- 
tended to reconcile and restore concord and fraternal feelings among our 
dividctl countrymen. There was no necessity to reserve a right to discuss, 
to modify and to repeal the obnoxious law. Such a right existed without 
any express reservation, not only as to that law, but as to all laws, and as 
to the Constitution itself, which has incorporated in it the light of amend- 
ment, and consequently that of discussion. But there are occasions when 
a spirit of moderation should prompt a forbearance to exercise that right. 
If more w^ere intended iIkiii iiieels the eye, more than to proclaim the 
theoretic rijrht of discussion, if it were designed to announce the right of 
unremitted agitation, to continue the distractions of the country, and, 
final Iv, if possible, to repeal the fugitive slave law, patriotism and harmony 
must condemn the unwise course, as fraught with the most mischievous 
and ]ii rilous consequences. 

" liut we must make some allowance for human frailty and inordinate 
pride of opinion. Many persons at the North had avowed an invincible 
hostility to the fugitive slave law ; and even declared their intention forci- 
bly to obstruct its execution, and had appealed to a higher law, which, as 
they contended, was paramount to all human legislation. These untenable 
positions were wholly irreconcilable with patriotism, or even with the ex- 



MR. CLAY. 405 

istCTice of regular government itself. Obeying the dictates, it is to be 
hoped, of wiser and j)nrer,*and more social counsels, the parties who, un- 
der llie impulses of passion and fanaticism, had assumed, have now aban- 
doned them, and acknowledged their unquestionable duty to submit to the 
law, uii i! it is modified or repealed by competent authority. In (h'scciid- 
ing iVdUi the high and perilous ground which they could not safely occupy, 
to that of coticeding the obligation of submission to the law, we discern, 
I ho])e, a just homage to the dictates of civilization, and to the duties of 
established government. Tf they have coupled with this proper concession 
the useless lesc v.-.lion of a right of discussion, and of insisting upon a re- 
peal or amendmetit of a law to wliicli they had taken exception, may we 
nc» I'.ope that tlioir purpose was only to secure a decent retreat, with a 
secret and jtatriotic deteimination to forbear from disturbing that return 
to harmony and tranquillity, so necessary to the safety and prosperity of 
the Union ? Should it tui'u out otherwise, should the reckless spirit of 
agitation continue to disturb and distract our country, to array section 
against section, and to threaten the stability of the government, my confi- 
dence is unshaken in the great body of our Northern fellow-citizens, that 
they will, in due time, and in a right manner, apply an appropriate and 
effectual corrective. 

" In turning our attention to the South, and to the slave-holding States, 
we behold enough to encourage the friends of the Union, and but little to 
excite solicitude and alarm. In all those States, except three, there is ac- 
quiescence in the terms of the compromise, and a firm attachment to the 
Union. In two of those three (Georgia and Mississippi), we have much 
reason to hope, fi-om their known patriotism and intelligence, that the 
same attachment exists, on the jvait of lai'ge majorities of the people. At 
all events, those among them, of whose devotion and fidelity to the Union 
serious apprehensions were entertained, have been constrained, in deference 
to public opinion, materially to change their principles, and to go to the 
polls upon a new issue. They have renounced and denounced the ]n'acti- 
cal light of secession at present, and taken shelter under the convenient 
mask of the mere abstract right. Whether this shifting of position will 
satisfy the people of those two States, remains to be seen. They will 
doubtless seriously consider, that there is but a short step between the theo- 
retic assertion, and the practical exercise of that right ; and in a contin- 
gency, neither remote nor improbable, if they aflirm the right, they may 
be soon called upon to involve tliemselves in all the calamitous evils of 
a civil war. 

" South Carolina alone furnishes at present occasion for profound regret 
and serious apprehension, not so much for the security of the Union as for 
her own peace and prosperity. We are compelled, painfully and reluc- 
tantlv, to yield, to the force of concurring evidence, establishing that there 
exists in that State general dissatisfaction with, and a general desire to 
withdraw from, the Union ; and that both parties — that which is for 
separate State action, and that which insists upon the necessity of the co- 



406 A LETTER OF 

operation of otlior States — equally agree as to the expediency of secession, 
and (Jitf.T only in the degree of rashness or prudence which characterizes 
them respectively. 

" Nullification and secession have sprung from the sajne metaphysical 
school ; and the latter is the ally, if not the offspring of the former. Thev 
both agree that a single State is invested with power to nullify the laws 
of all the other States, passed by Congress; but nuliification claims a rifrht 
to accomplish that object, and to remain at the same time in the Union ; 
while secession asserts a right to attain it, by withdrawing from the 
Union, and absolving the State from all obligation to the Constitution and 
laws of the United States. They both maintain that a resort to either 
process is peaceful and legitimate, Nullification derived an ambiguous but 
contested support from the memorable resolutions of the States of Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky, adopted in 1798-99 ; but those resolutions afford no 
color or countenance to the pretensions of secession. 

" The doctrine of secession assumes, that any one of the thirty-one States 
composing the Union, wherever or however situated, whether in the in- 
terior or on the frontier, has a right, upon its own separate will, and ac- 
cording to the dictates of its exclusive judgment, to witlnlraw from the 
Union whenever it pleases ; that this act of secession is peaceful, and not to 
be controverted or obstructed by the rest of the States, or by the ajiplica- 
tion of any force, within the limits of the seceding State, to execute the 
laws of the United States ; and that, thereupon, the State and its citizens 
are absolved from all obligations and duties to the United States, and be- 
come a power as independent and sovereign as any of the nations of the 
earth. The doctrine maintains that this right of secession may be exer- 
cised whenever the State deems it has sufficient cause ; at all times — in a 
state of profound peace and prosperity, or in the midst of a fuiious war, 
raging in ail our borders; and that, in the latter (;ase, transforming itself 
into a distinct and. independent nation, it may escape the calamities of war, 
make a separate treaty of ])eace with the common enemy, become neutral, 
or even ally itself with that enemy, and take up aims against the United 
States. It asserts this right, although it may lead, in process of time, to 
the promiscuous dotting over, upon the surface of the territoi'v of the 
United States, of petty independent nations, establishing for themselves 
any form of government, free or despotic, known to mankind, and inter- 
rupting the intercourse and violating or menacing the execution of the 
laws of the dismenibered confederacy. It contends for this right, as well 
for Louisiana as for South Carolina, although the jirovince of Louisiana 
cost us so nmch money, and was nigh involving us in a foreign war; for 
Texas, although it occasioned us a war w ith Mexico, the payment of ten 
millions of dollars to arrangi- its boundaries, and to acquire it, manv were 
willing to risk a war with England ; and for distant California, although 
that was ac(|uired by the double title of conquest and the payment of an 
ample pi-euniary consideration. 

" If, indeed, the Union, under wliich we have so long, and generally so 



MR. CLAY. 407 

happily lived, be thus fragile, and liable to crumble into pieces, wo must 
cease to boast of the wisdom of our forefathers who formed it, tear from 
our hearts the sentiments of gratitude and veneration with which they had 
hispired us, and no longer expect an enlightened world to bestow the un- 
bounded praise which it has hitherto lavished on them. A doctrine so ex- 
ti'aordinary and indefensible, fraught with the destniction of the Union, 
and such other direful consequences, finds no encouragement or suppoit in 
the Constitution of the United States. It has none under the articles of 
confederation wliioh formed, in terms, a perpetual Union, however other- 
wise Aveak and inefficient the government was which they established.. 
That inefficiency arose out of the fact, that it operated not on the people 
directly, but upon the States, which might, and often did, fail to comply 
with the requisitions made on them by Congress. To correct that defect, 
and to form a more perfect Union, the present Constitution was adopted. 
It had been alleged, that the Union of the States, under the articles of con- 
federation, was held together only by a rope of sand ; but it was a rope of 
adamant, compared with the cord which now binds us, if the right of 
secession is sanctioned and sustained. 

" The Constitution of the United States estabhshes a government, and, 
like all governments, it was to be perpetual, or to have unlimited duration. 
It was not restricted to the existing generation, but comprehended pos- 
terity. The preamble declares, that ' AYe, the people of the United States, 
in order to form a more •perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do or- 
dain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.' It 
makes provision expressly for the admission of new States into the 
Union ; but from the beginning to the end of it, not a clause is to be found 
which gives any authority or color to the right of secession of a State once 
admitted into the Union. 

" The partisans of this novel and strange doctrine attempt to support it 
on two grounds : First, they contend that by an express amendment of the 
Constitution, as all powers not granted to the government of the United 
States are reserved to the States, or to the people, the power or right of 
secession is not granted, and that it is therefore retained by the States and 
the people, and may be exercised at their pleasure. 

" This argument is refuted by either of two sufficient answers. The 
contested power can not be retained, if its reservation be incompatible 
with the obligations of the constitutional compact. But the Constitution 
was intended to be peqietual, or which is the same thing, to be of un- 
limited existence, subject oidy, from time to time, to such amendments as 
mi<iht be made, in the mode which it specifies. It created a more perfect 
Union, which was to secure the blessings of liberty to the generation 
which formed it, and to their postcritij. The obligation which each State 
voluntarily assumed to the other State?, by being admitted into tlie Union, 
was, that it would remain perpetually bound with the other States to 



408 A LETTER OF 

preserve tliat union, for their own benefit, and to inure to the benefit of 
posterity. To assert in tlie face of that obligation, that a State mav retire 
fnjin the Union whenever it pleases, is to assert that a party, bound by a 
solemn compact to other parties, may cancel or violate the compact when- 
ever it thinks proper, without their consent. In order to secure respect 
and submission to the Union, the Constitution expressly provides, ' that 
this Constitution, and laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under 
the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the lainl ; 
and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the 
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding:.' 

" Thus each and every one of the States has agreed, not only that its 
ordinary legislation, but that its Constitution, the higher law made by the 
people themselves in convention, shall, in any cases of conflict, be subor- 
dinate to the paramount authority of tlie Ccaistitution, laws made in pur- 
suance thereof, and treaties of the United States. If, therefore, any State 
■were, either in its legislature, or in a convention of delegates of the peo- 
ple, to declare, by the most formal act, that it had seceded from the Union, 
such act would be nugatory and an absolute nullity ; and the people of 
that State would remain bound by the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the 
United States, as fully and perfectly as if the act had never been proclaimed. 

" But there is another view also, conclusive against the pretension of 
secession being a power reserved to the States under the amendment of the 
Constitution referred to. The reservation of a power imphes its existence 
in the party reserving it, prior to such reservation. But when a State ex- 
isted in its independent, separate and unassociated character, it could have 
had no right of secession, there being no confederacy or other party from 
which to secede. Secession is incident to union or confed(M-acv, without 
which it can have no existence, and, unless it is clearly provided for in the 
comj)act of the Union, out of which it springs, and still more, if it be 
utterly irreconcilable with that compact, it can have no constitutional or 
legitimate foundation. 

" It is contended, however, in the second place, that the right of seces- 
sion ap])ertains to the States, under and in virtue of their sovereio'ntv. 
This argument scorns any reliance upon the reservation of powers in the 
Constitution, cuts loose from all the obligations in that instruTuent, defies 
the power and authority of the general government, and finds a solution 
of the authority for secession in the sovereignty of the States. What 
that sovereignty is, it does not deign to define or explain, nor to show how 
one of its attributes is to disregard and violate grave compacts. 

"The sovereignty of the States, prior to the adoption of the present 
Constitution, was limited and qualified by the articles of confederation. 
They had .-igreed among themselves to create a perpetual Union. AVhen. 
therefore, the thirteen (Miginal States passed from uuder those articles, to 
ibe Constitution, tliey passed from a less to a more perfect Union, and 
agreed to furibcr limitations upon their sovereignty. 



MR. CLAY, 409 

" Under the present Constitution, among the limitations and prohibi- 
tions iipoii the sovereignty of the States, it is expressly provided, that 'no 
State sliall enter into any treaty, allian(!e or eon feu oration, grant le'ters of 
marque and reprisal, coin money, emit bills of credit, malce any thing but 
gold and silver coin a, tender in payment of deb'.s ; and no State shall, 
•without the consent of Congress, lay any iluty of tonnage, keep troops or 
ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with 
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually 
invaded, or in such imminent danijer as will admit of no delay.' It may be 
affirmed, with entire truth, that all the attributes of sovereignty which re- 
late to peace and war, commerce, navigation, friendship and intercourse 
with, and, in short, all that relate to foreign powers, and several of those 
attributes which lelate to the internal adnn'nistration of the States them- 
selves, are voluntarily surrendered to the general government, and can not 
be exercised by the States. The peiformance of any of the forbid(ien acts 
would be null and void, no mattei" in what solemn and authentic form, nor 
by what State authority, the legislature, a convention, or the people them- 
selves of the State, in an aggregate mass, it might be perfoimed. The 
Constitution of the United Sttites would instantly intervene, vacate the act, 
and. proclaim the overruling, supreme and paramount authority of the 
Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. 

"It is clear, therefore, that no Siate can do any thing repugnant to the 
Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. What it might do, 
if it were in possession uf all its absolute sovereignty, and had never en- 
tered into this Union, is a difterent question. But if we suppose, contrary 
to the historical fact, that the States were absolutely sovereign, when the 
existing Constitution was adopteil, could they circumscribe and contract 
their ;'.ttributes of sovereignty, by the stipulations and provisions which are 
contained in it ? All history is full of examples of the total annihilation 
of sovereignty or nationality, oftener by the power of the sword and con- 
quest, but sometimes by the voluntary act of one nation, merging itself 
into another, of which we have a striking instance in the case of Texas, 
in our own country. Assuming that the Constitution is a mere compact 
between independent nations, or sovereign States, they are, nevertheless, 
bound by all the obligations which the compact creates. They are bound 
to abstain from all forbidden acts, and to submit to the supremacy of the 
ConstiiUlion and laws of the United States. But, it will be asked, have 
they not also the right to judge of the fidelity with which the common 
government has adhered to the common compact ? Yes, most certainly. 
They have that right, and so has every citizen of the United States, and so 
has the ffeneral o-overnmcnt also. The alleijed violation of the Constitu- 
tion may be exposed and denounced by all the weapons of reason, of argu- 
ment, and of ridicule ; by remonstrance, protest, appeals to the judiciary, 
and to the other States ; by the press, public opinion, and all legitimate 
means of persuading or influencing it. If, after the employment of all or 
any of these peaceful methods, the government of the United States, sus- 



410 A LETTER OF 

tained by a constitutional majority of the nation, persist in retaining the 
obnoxious hiw, there is no alternative but obedience to the law, on the part 
of the minority, or open, undisguised, manly and forcible resistance to its 
execution. 

" The alleged right of secession is, I apprehend, sometimes confounded 
with a right of revolution. But its partizans mean a totally diti'ereut thing. 
They contend that it is a peaceful, lawful, and, if not constitutional remedy, 
that it is not forbidden by the Constitution. They insist that it is a State 
right, to be recognized and respected ; and, that whenever exercised by a 
State, far from being censured or condemned, the State, if necessary, is 
entitled to the co-operation of other States. The prudent valor of these 
partizans, in imitation of the prt^^^ous example of the friends of nullifica- 
tion, disclaims the puipose of using themselves, and protest against the 
application to them of any physical force. 

'•The right of revolution is that right, -which an unjustly oppressed peo- 
ple, threatened vnth, or borne down by intolerable and insupjwrtable 
tyranny and injustice, have, of resorting to forcible resistance, to prevent 
or redress the wrongs w-ith which they are menaced, or under which they 
are sutFering. It may aim simply at the removal of grievances, or it may 
seek totally to change the existing government, or to establish within its 
limits a new government. It is a rio-lit not confined by the boundaries of 
States, (although being organized political bodies, they may be capable of 
giving greater efiect to revolutionary efforts), but it belongs to oppressed 
man, Avhatever may be his condition. In all revolutions, however, there 
are two parties, those who revolt, and the government which they foicibly 
resist. There aie generally two opposite opinions also, entertained of 
the cause of resistance : that of those who rise in rebellion, believing 
themselves to be wronged, and that of the existing government, which 
denies having inflicted any oppression or injustice. It is incumbent upon 
wise and considerate men, before they hastily engage in a revolution, 
deliberately to consider the motives and causes of revolt, and carefully to 
cnlculate the probable consequences of forcible resistance. If unsuccessful, 
they know that they will be guilty of treason, and incur the j>rnalty in- 
flicted upon traitors. 

"I have thus, gentlemen, presented an imperfect sketch of some of the 
views which I have taken of the existing topics of the day. It would ad- 
mit of much enlargement and additional illustration, but 1 have already 
given to this paper an inordinate length. In contemplating that sketch, 
we behold much more to animate the hopes and to encourage the patriot- 
ism of the country, than to create regret and apjirehension. After such a 
political storm as that which violently raged during the last Congress, it 
was not to be expected that the nation would instantly settle down in per- 
fect quiet and rei)ose. Considering the vast extent of our territory, our 
numerous population, the heated conflicts of passion, of opinion, of in- 
terests and of sections, pervnding the entire Union, we have great reason 
to be thjmkful to I'rovidence lor the degi'ee of calmness, of tranquility, and 



MR. CLAY. 411 

of satisfaction, wliicli prevails. If there are local exceptions at the North 
and at the South, of rash and niiso-uided men, wlio would ma lly resist the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, let us not despair of their re- 
turn, in seasonable time, to reason and to duty. But sujipose we should 
be disai)poiiitecl, and that the standard should be raised of open resistance 
to the Union, the Constitution and the laws, what is to be done I There 
can be but one possible answer. The power, the authority and dignity of 
the government ought to be maintained, and resistance put down at every 
hazard. Government, in the fallen and depraved state of man, would lose 
all respect, and fall into disgrace and contempt, if it did not possess poten- 
tially, and would not, in extreme cases, practically exercise the light of 
employing force. The theory of the Constitution of the United States 
assumes the necessity of the existence and the application of force, both in 
our foreign and domestic relations. Congress is expressly authorized ' to 
raise and support armies,' ' to provide and maintain a navy,' and ' to pro- 
vide for calling forth the militia, to execute the laws of the Union, snjyjyress 
insurrections and repel invasions.' The duty of executing the laws and 
suppressing insurrections, is without Hmitation or qualification ; it is co- 
extensive with the jurisdiction of the United States, and it comprehends 
every species of resistance to the execution of the laws, and every form of 
insurrection, no matter under what auspices or sanction it is made. In- 
dinduals, public meetings, States, may resolve, as often as their tastes or 
passion may prompt them to resolve, that they will forcibly oppose the 
execution of the laws, and secede from the Union. While these resolu- 
tions remain on paper, they are harmless ; but the moment a daring hand 
is raised to resist, by force, the execution of the laws, the duty of enforcing 
them arises, and if the conflict which may ensue should lead to civil war, 
the resisting pai-ty, having begun it, will be responsible for all the con- 
sequences. 

" Since the adoption of our present Constitution, and the Union which 
it created, by the blessing of Providence, we have advanced in population, 
power, wealth, internal improvement, and national greatness, with a degree 
of rapidity which, unparalleled in ancient or modern nations, has excited 
the astonishment and commanded the admiration of mankind. Our ample 
limits and extensive jurisdiction, more than tripled, have been made to 
embrace all the provinces of Louisiana, the two Floridas, Texas and New 
Mexico ; and passing the Rocky Mountains, have reached the Pacific 
Ocean, comprehending Oregon, and California, and Utah. Our population 
has risen from four to twenty-three millions; our revenue, without any 
onerous burden, has grown from less than three to near fifty millions of 
dollars; our revolutionary debt is extinguished; our mercantile marine is 
not surpassed by that of the greatest maritime power; the abundant pro- 
ducts of our agriculture, satisfy all our wants, and contribute to the sub- 
sistence of other nations; our manufactures are rapidly tending to the 
supply of all we essentially need from them, an'l to afibrd a surplus for the 
prosecution of our extended foreign commerce ; the surface of our land is 



412 A LETTER OF MR. CLAY. 

striped over with railroads and turnpikes, and our sea lakes and naviijable 
waters resound with the roar of innumerable steam vessels. Your own 
great city illustrates our surprising progress. After the commencement 
of the operation of this Constitution, in 1790, its population was 33,131. 
By the census of 1850, it was 515,394, and our other cities have increased 
in scarcely a less ratio. Tiie i)roblem of the capacity of representative 
government to maintain free and liberal institutions, on an extensive terri- 
tory, has been triumphantly solved by the intelligence of the people, and 
the all-powerful agency of steam and lightning. 

" Such are the gratifying results which have been obtained under the 
auspices of that Union, which some rash men, prompted by ambition, 
passion and frenzy, would seek to dissolve and subvert ! To revolt 
against such a government, for any thing which has passed, would be so 
atrocious, and characterized by such extreme folly and madness, that we 
may search in vain for an example of it in human annals. We can look for 
its prototype only (if I may be pardoned the allusion) to that diabolical re- 
volt which, recorded on the pages of Iloly Writ, has been illustrated and 
commemorated by the sublime genius of the immortal Milton. 

" In conclusion, gentlemen, let us enjoy the proud consolation afforded 
by the conviction that a vast majority of the people of the United States, 
true to their forefathers, true to themselves, and true to posterity, are firmly 
and immovably attached to this Union ; that they see in it a safe an-1 sure, 
if not the sole guaranty of libertj^ of internal peace, of prosperity, and of 
national hajipiness, progress and greatness ; that its dissolution would be 
followed by endless wars among ourselves, by the temptation or invitation 
to foreign powers to take part in them, and finally, by foreign subjugation, 
or the establishment of despotism ; and that ' united we stand — divided 
we fall.' 

" I am, with the highest respect, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"11. Clay. 

" To Messrs. Stephen Whitney, Geo. 
Griswold, Daniel Ullmann, 
and the other siiruers of the 
Address." 



NOTE E— Page 255. 



We have not been disposed to attach party designations to 
the names of the senators, wlio, in their places, pronounced eu- 
logies on tlie life and character of Mr. Clay the day after his 
death, as cited in the text. The speakers were equally divided 
between the two great parties ; but tliere was no party feeling. 
So far as party politics are concerned, Mr. Clay did not come to 
his end as a party man, but as an American Patriot, which all 
of both parties felt, perhaps equally ; and the tributes of respect 
paid to him by the Democrats, after he was dead, were doubtless 
equally sincere as those rendered by the Whigs. Mr. Clay, as 
we have had occasion to observe in these pages, was always a 
national man ; but the efforts he made to bring about the Com- 
promise of 1850, disarmed the party feeling of his former politi- 
cal opponents, in Congress and throughout the country, and he 
died equally lamented by all. All of both parties, apparently, 
were disposed to render equal honors to his name. They 
seemed to rival each other in doing justice to tiic great Amer- 
ican Patriot, and in claiming a common property in his fame. 
It was not simply the effect of the subduing power of the great 
^destroyer, though this, undoubtedly, had its influence ; luit it 
was a sincere respect for the man. He left the theater of his 
great earthly exploits admired, loved, and lamented by all. As 
in the Senate, so also in the House of Representatives, his 
eulogists were equally divided between the two great parties of 
the nation, and no one would know from the remarks of the 
speakers, to which party they belonged, except incidentally dis- 
closed by some of them. 

There is not only a special interest in these speeches on such 
an occasion, but they are especially pertinent to our general pur- 
pose, as they exhibit the life and character of Mr. Clay in many 
points of view peculiarly fresh and glowing, as coming up from 



414 REMARKS OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE, 

the heart, at the same time that they revive and record histori- 
cal recollections of interest and value. Take them as a whole, 
they are an epitome of the life and character of ^Ir. Clay, and 
from this body of evidence alone, a total stranger to Mr. Clay's 
history would have a very tolerable idea of it. It is a chapter 
of its own kind, and essential to the completeness of the pic- 
ture — brief, condensed, and replete with eloquent thought. It 
is the last act of the drama — not tragical, but yet having all the 
interest of such an exhibition, because the hand of death is in it. 
In the House of Representatives, July 30, 1852, a message 
was received from the Senate by the hands of Asbury Dickens, 
Esq., its Secretary, announcing the death of Henry Clay, late 
senator from Kentucky, and the adoption of certain resolutions 
of that body. 

M. Breckinridge* rose and said : 

" Mr. Speaker : I rise to perform the melancholy duty of announcing to 
this body the deatli of Uenry Clay, late a senator in Congress from the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

" Mr. Clay expired at his lodgings in this city yesterday morning, at 
seventeen minutes past eleven o'clock, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. 
Ilis noble intellect was unclouded to the last. After protracted sufferings, 
he passed away without pain ; and so gently did the spirit leave his frame, 
that tlie moment of departure was not observed by the friends who 
watched at his bedside. His last hours were cheered by the presence 
of an affectionate son, and he died surrounded by friends who, dur- 
ing his long illness, had done all that affection could suggest to soothe his 
sufferings. 

" Although this sad event has been expected for many weeks, the shock 
it produced, and the innumerable tributes of respect to his memory exhib- 
ited on every side, and in every form, prove the depth of the public sorrow 
and the greatness of the public loss. 

" Imperishably associated as liis name has been for fifty years with every 
great event affecting the fortunes of our country, it is difiioult to reahze 
that he is indeed gone forever. It is difficult to feel that we sliall see no 
more his noble form within these walls — that we shall hear no more his 
patriot tones, now rousing his countrymen to vindicate their rights 
against a foreign foe, now imploring them to preserve concord among 
themselves, AVe shall see him no more. The memory and tlie fruits of 
his services alone remain to us. Amid the general gloom, the Capitol 
itself Iof)ks desolate, as if tlie genius of the place had departed. Already 
the intelligence has reached almost every quarter of the liepublic, and a 
great people inouni with us, to-day, the death of their most illustrious 

* J. C. Beckinridge, of Kentucky. 



REMARKS OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 415 

citizen. Sympathizing, as we do, deeply, with his family and friends, yet 
private affliction is absorbed in the general sorrow. The spectacle of a 
whole comnumity lamenting the loss of a great man, is far more touching 
than any manifestation of private grief. In speaking of a loss which is na- 
tional, I will not attempt to describe the universal burst of grief with which 
Kentucky will receive these tidings. The attempt would be vain to 
depict the gloom that will cover her people, when they know that the 
pillar of fire has been removed which has guided their footsteps for the life 
of a generation. 

"It is known to the country that, from the memorable session of 1849- 
'50, Mr. Clay's health gradually declined. Although several years of his 
senatorial term remained, he did not propose to continue in the public 
service longer than the present session. He came to Washington chiefly 
to defend, if it should become necessary, the measures of Adjustment, to 
the adoption of which he so largely contributed ; but the condition of his 
health did not allow him, at any time, to participate in the discussions of 
the Senate. Durinfj the winter he was confined almost wholly to his room, 
with slight chano'cs in his condition, but ijraduallv losincf the reumant of 

■no ' o * o 

his strength. During the long and dreaiy winter, he conversed much and 
cheerfully with his friends, and expressed a deep interest in public affairs. 
Although he did not expect a restoration to health, he cherished the hope 
that the mild season of the spring would bring to him strength enough to 
return to Ashland, and die in the bosom of his family. But alas ! spring 
that brings life to all nature, brought no life nor hoj^e to him. After the 
month of March, his vital powers rapidly wasted, and for weeks he lay 
patiently awaiting the stroke of death. But the approach of the destroyer 
had no terrors for him. Xo clouds overhung his future. He met the end 
with composure, and his pathway to the grave was brightened by the im- 
mortal hopes which spring from the Christian faith. 

" Not long before his death, hanng just returned from Kentucky, I 
bore to him a token of aft'ection from his excellent wife. Never can I 
forget his appearance, his manner, or his words. After speakiiig of his 
family, his friends, and his countiy, he changed the conversation to his 
own future, and looking on me with his fine eye undimmed, and his 
voice full of its original compass and melody, he said, ' I am not afraid 
to die, sir. I have hope, faith, and some confidence. I do not think 
any man can be entirely certain in regard to his future state, but I liave 
an abidinof trust in the merits and mediation of our Saviour.' It will 
assuage the grief of his family to know that he looked hopefully beyond 
the tomb, and a Christian people will rejoice to hear that such a man in 
his last hours reposed with simplicity and confidence on the promises of 
the Gospel. 

"It is the custom, on occasions like this, to speak of the parentage and 
childhood of the deceased, and to follow him, step by step, through lifV*. I 
will not attempt to relate even all the great events of Mr. Clay's life, be- 



41C REMARKS OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 

cause they are familiar to the whole country, and it would be needless 
to emunerate a long list of public services which form a part of American 
liistoiy. 

" Beginning life as a friendless boy, with few advantages save those con- 
ferred l>y nature, while yet a minor he left Virginia, the State of his birth, 
and commenced the practice of law at Lexington, in Kentucky. At a bar 
remarkable for its numbers and talent, Mr. Clay soon rose to the first rank. 
At a very early age, he was elected from the county of Fayette to the 
General Assembly of Kentucky, and >vas the Speaker of that body. Coming 
into the Senate of the United States, for the first time, in 1800, he entered 
upon a parliamentary career, the most brilliant and successful in our annals. 
From that time, he remained habitually in the public eye. As a senator, as 
a member of this House, and its Speaker, as a representative of his country 
abroad, and as a high officer in the Executive department of the Govern- 
ment, he was intimately connected for fifty years with every great measure 
of American policy. Of the mere party measures of this period, I do not 
propose to speak. Many of them have passed away, and are remembered 
only as the occasion fur the great intellectual efforts which marked their 
discussion. Concerning others, opinions arc* still divided. They will go 
into history, with the reasons on either side rendered by the greatest intel- 
lects of the time. 

" As a leader in a deliberative body, Mr. Clay had no equal in America. 
In him, intellect, person, eloquence, and courage, united to form a character 
fit to command. He fired witii his own enthusi:\sm, and controlled by his 
amazing will, individuals and masses. No reverse could crush his spirit, 
nor defeat reduce him to despair. Equally erect and dauntless in pros- 
perity and adversity, when successful ho moved to the accomplishment of 
his puqDOses with severe resolution ; when defeated, he rallied his broken 
bands around him, and from his eagle-eye shot along their ranks the con- 
tagion of his own courage. Destined for a leader, he everywhere asserted 
his destiny. In his long and eventful life, he came in contact with men of 
all ranks and professions, but he never felt that he was in the presence of a 
man superior to himself. In the iissemblies of the people, at the bar, in 
the Senate — everywhere within the circle of his personal presence, he as- 
sumed and maintained a position of pre-eminence. 

" But the supremacy of Mr. Clay as a party leader, was not his only nor 
his highest title to renown. That title is to be found in llie purely patriotic 
spirit which, on great occasions, always signalized his conduct. We have 
had no statesman who, in periods of real and imminent public peril, has 
exhil tiled a more genuine and enlarged patriotism than Henry Clay. 
^Yhenever a (juestion presented itself actually threatening the existence of 
the Union, Mi-. Clay, rising above the passions of the hour, always exerted 
his jiMwers to solve it peacefully and honorably. Although more liable 
than most men, iVoiii his impetuous and ardent nature, to feel strongly the 
passions common to us all, it was his rare tiiculty to be able to subdue them 



REMARKS OF MU. BRECKINRIDGE. 417 

in a groat crisis, ami to hold toward all sections of the Confederacy the 
lano'iiaiiv of concord an<l 1 motherhood. 

" Sir, it will be a proud pleasure to every true American heart to remem- 
ber the great occasions when Mr. Clay lias displayed a sublime patriotism — 
when the ill-temper engendered by the times, and the miserable jealousies 
of the day, seemed to have bcm driven from his bosom by the expulsive 
power of nobler feehngs — when every throb of his heart was given to his 
country, every etibrt of his intellect dedicated to her service. Who does 
not remember the three periods when the American system of government 
was exposed to its severest trials ; and who does not know that when His- 
tory shall relate the struggles wliich preceded the dangers which were 
averted by the Missouri Compromise, the Tariff Compromise of 1833, and 
the Adjustment of 1850, the same pages will record the genius, the elo- 
quence, and the patriotism of Henry Clay ? 

" Nor was it in Mr. Clay's nature to lag behind until measures of adjust- 
ment were matured, and then come forward to swell a majority. On the 
contrary, like a bold and real statesman, he was ever among the first to 
meet the peril, and hazard his fame ui)on the remedy. It is fresh in the 
memory of us all that, when lately the fury of sectional discord threatened 
to sever the Confederacy, Mr. Clay, though withdrawn from public life, and 
oppressed by the burden of years, came back to the Senate, the theater of 
his glory, and devoted the remnant of his strength to the sacred duty of 
preserving the union of the States. 

" With characteristic courage, he took the lead in proposing a scheme of 
settlement. But, while he was willing to assume the responsibility of pro- 
posing a plan, he did not, with petty ambition, insist upon its adoption to 
the exclusion of other modes ; but, taking his own as a starting-point for 
discussion and practical action, he nobly labored with his compatriots to 
change and improve it in such form as to make it an acceptable adjustment. 
Throughout the long and arduous struggle, the love of country expelled 
from his Ijosom. the spirit of selfishness, and Mr. Clay proved, for the third 
time, that though he was ambitious, and loved glory, he had no ambition 
to mount to fame on the confusions of his country. And this conviction 
is lodged in the hearts of the people ; the party measures and the party 
passions of former times have not, for several years, interjoosed between Mr. 
Clay and the masses of his countrymen. After 1850, he seemed to feel 
that his mission was accomplished, and during the same period, the regards 
and aft'ections of the American people have been attracted to him in a re- 
markable degree. For many months the warmest feelings, the deepest 
anxieties, of all parties centered upon the dying statesman ; the glory of 
his o-reat actions shed a mellow luster on his declining years, and to fill the 
measure of his fame, his countrymen, weaving for him the laurel wreath, 
with coiinnon hands did bind it abuut his venerable brows, and send him, 
crowned, to history. 

" The life of Mr. Clay, sir, is a striking example of the abiding fame 

27 



418 REMARKS OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 

which Purely awaits tlic direct and candid statesman. The entire absence 
of equivocation or disguise in all his acts, was his niastor-key to the popu- 
lar heart ; for while the people will forgive the errors of a bold and open 
nature, he sins past forgiveness who deliberately deceives them. Hence 
Mr. ( 'lay. though often defeated in his measures of policy, always secured 
the respect of his opponents without losing the confidence of his friends. 
He never paltered in a double sense. The country' never was in doubt as 
to his opinions or his purposes. In all the contests of his time, his jiosition 
on great public questions was as clear as the sun in the cloudless sky. Sir, 
standing by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, how 
contemptible does appear the mere legerdemain of politics I What a re- 
proach is liis life on that folse policy which would trifle with a great and 
upright people ! If I were to write liis epitaph, I would inscribe, as the 
highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his resting-place, ' Here lies 
a man who was in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted to 
deceive his countrymen.' 

" While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, they 
may take courage from his careei-, and note the high proof it atlbrds that, 
under our equal institutions, the avenues to honor are open to all. Mr. Clay 
rose by the force of his own genius, unaided by power, ])atronage, or wealth. 
At an age when our young men are usually a<:lvanced to the higher schools 
of learning, provided only with the rudiments of an English education, he 
turned his steps to the West, and, amid the rude collisions of a border 
life, matured a character whose highest exhibitions were destined to mark 
eras in his country's history. Beginning on the frontiers of American 
civilization, the orphan boy, supported only by the consciousness of his 
own powers, and by the confidence of the people, surmounted all the bar- 
riers of adverse fortune, and won a glorious name in the annals of his 
country. Let the generous youth, fired with honorable ambition, remember 
that the American system of government ofters on every hand bounties to 
merit. If, like Clay, orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress him ; yet 
if, like Clay, he feels the IVoinethean spark within, let him remember that 
his country, like a generous mother, extends her arms to welcome and to 
cherish eveiy one of her children whose genius and worth may 2>romote 
Ikt pi'osperity or increase her renown. 

" Mr. Speaker, the signs of woe around us, and the general voice, announce 
that another great man has fallen. Our consolation is that he was not 
tiiken in the vigor of his manhood, but sunk into the grave at the close of 
a long and illuiitrious career. The great statesmen who have filled the 
largest space in the public eye, one by one, are passing away. Of the 
three great leaders of the Senate, one alone remains, and he must follow 
Koon. We shall witness no more their intellectual struggles in the Amer- 
ican foium ; but the monuments of their genius will be cherished as the 
common property of the people, and their names will continue to confer 
dignity and renown \qion their country. 



REMARKS OF MR. EWING. 419 

"Not less illustrious than the jifi'catest of these will be the name of 
Clay — a name pronounced with pride by Americans in every quarter of 
the globe ; a name to be remembered while history shall record the strug- 
gles of modern Greece for freedom, or the spirit of liberty burn in the 
South American bosom ; a living and immortal name — a name that would 
descend to posterity without the aid of letters, borne by tradition i'rora 
generation to generation. Every memorial of such a man will possess a 
meaning and a value to his countrymen. His tomb will be a hallowed 
spot. Great memories w ill cluster there, and his countrymen, as they visit 
it, may well exclaim — 

'"Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, 
Shrines to no creed confined; 
The Dclpliian vales, the Palestines, 
The Meccas of the mind.' 

" Mr. Speaker, I offer the follomng resolutions : 

" Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the United States has received, 
with the deepest sensibilit}-, intelligence of the death of Henry Clay. 

'^Resolved, That the ofBccrs and members of the House of Representatives will wear 
the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a testimony of the profound respect 
this House entertains for the memory of the deceased. 

" Resolved, That the ofiSccrs and members of the House of Representatives, in a 
body, will attend the funeral of Henry Clay, on the day appointed for that purpose 
by the Senate of the United States. 

"Resolved, That the proceedings of this House, in relation to the death of Henry 
Clay, be communicated to the family of the deceased by the Clerk. 

•'Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for the memory of the deceased, this 
House do now adjourn." 

REMARKS OF MR. EWmG.* 

Mr. Ewing rose and said : " A noble heart has ceased to beat forever. 
A long life of brilliant and self-devoted public service is finished at last, 
and we now stand at its conclusion, looking back throuirh the chanireful 
history of that life to its beginning, cotemporancous with the very birth 
of the Republic, and its varied events mingled in our hearts and our mem- 
ories — with the triumph and calamities, the weakness and the power, the 
adversity and prosperity of a country we love so much. As we contem- 
plate this sad event in this place, the shadoAvs of the past gather over us ; 
the memories of events long gone crowd upon us, and the shades of de- 
parted patriots seem to hover about us, waiting to receive into their midst 
the spirit of one who is worthy to be a co-laborer with them in a common 
cause, and to share in the rewards of their virtues. Ilenceforth he must be 
to us as one of tb.em. 

" They say he w as ambitious. If so, it was a grievous fault, and griev- 
ously has he answered it. lie has found in it naught but disappointment. 
It has but served to aggravate the mortification of his defeats, and furnish 

* Presley Ewing, of Kentucky. 



420 REMARKS OF MR. EWING. 

an additional luster to the triumph of his foes. Those who come after us 
mav, ay, they will, inquire why his statue stands not among the statues of 
those whom men thought ahlest and worthiest to govern ? 

"But his ambition was a high and holy feeling, unselfish, magnanimous. 
Its aspirations wtiv for his country's good, and its triumph was his coun- 
try's prosperity. Whether in honor or reproach, in triumph or defeat, that 
heart of his never throbbed with one pulsation save for her honor and her 
welfare. Turn to him in that last, best deed, and crowniug glory of a life 
so full of public service and of honor, when his career of personal ambition 
was finished forever. Rejected again and again by his countrymen ; just 
abandoned by a party which would scarce have had an existence without 
his genius, his courage, and his labors, that great heart, ever firm and de- 
fiant to the assaults of his enemies, but defenseless against the ingratitude 
of friends, doubtless wrung with the bitterest mortification of his life ; then 
it was, and under such circumstances as these, the gathering stomi rose 
upon his country. All eyes turned to him ; all voices called for those serv- 
ices which, in the hour of prosperity, and security, they had so carelessly 
rejected. With no misanthropic chagrin, Avith no morose, selfish resent- 
ment, he forgot all but his country and that country endangered. He re- 
turns to the scene of his labors and his fame, which he had thought to 
have left forever. A scene — that American Senate-Chamber, clothed in no 
gorgeous drapery, shrouded in no superstitious awe or ancient reverence 
for hereditary power, but to a reflecting American mind more full of in- 
terest, of dignity, and of grandeur, than any spot on this broad earth, not 
made holy by religion's consecrating seal. See him as he enters there, 
tremblingly, but hopefully, upon the last, most momentous, perhaps most 
doubtful conflict of his life. Sir, many a gay tournament has been more 
dazzling to the eye of fancy, more gorgeous and imposing in the display of 
jewelry and cloth of gold, in the sound of heralds' trumpets, in the grand 
array of princely beauty and of royal pride. I\Iany a battle-field has trem- 
bled beneath a more ostentatious ])arade of human power, and its con- 
querors have been crowned with laurels, honored with triumphs, and 
apotheosized amid the demigods of history ; but to the thoughtful, hope- 
ful, pliilanthropic student of the annals of his race, never was there a con- 
flict in which such dangers were threatened, such hopes imperiled, or the 
hero of which deserved a warmer gratitude, a nobler triumpli, or a prouder 
monument. 

" Sir, from that long, anxious, and exhausting conflict he never rose 
again. In tli.it last battle for his country's honor, and liis country's safety, 
he received the mortal wound which lai.l hini low; and we now mourn 
the death of a martyred patriot. 

" But never, in all the grand drama which the story of his life arrays, 
never has he presented a sublimer or a more touching spectacle than in 
those last days of his decline and death. Broken with the storms of state, 
wounded and scathed iu many a fiery conflict, that aged, worn, and de- 



REMARKS OF MR. EWING. 421 

cayed body, in such a mounit'iil contrast with tlic nevor-dyiiig stn.'iigtli of 
bis oiaiit spirit, he seemed a proud and sacred, tliougli a crumbling monu- 
ment of iiast aflorv. Standinii" among us like some ancient colossal ruin 
amid the doo-enerate and more diminutive structures of modern times, its 
vast proportions magnified by the contrast, he reminded us of those days 
when there were giants in the land, and we remembered tliat even then 
there was none whose prowess could withstand his arm. To watch him in 
that slow decline, yielding with dignity, and, as it were, inch by inch, to 
that last enemy, as a hero yields to a conquering foe, the glorious light of 
his intellect blazing still in all its wonted brilliancy, and setting at defiance 
the clouds that vainly attempted to obscure it, he was more full of interest 
than in the day of his glory and his power. There are some men wliose 
brightest intellectual emanations rise so little su])erior to the instincts of the 
animal, that we are led fearl'ully to doubt that cherished truth of the soul's 
immortalitv, which, even in despair, men press to their doubting hearts. 
But it is in the death of such a man as he that we are re-assured by the 
contemplation of a kindred though supenor spirit, of a soul which, immor- 
tal like his fame, knows no old age, no decay, no death. 

" The wondrous light of his unmatched intellect may have dazzled a 
■world, the eloquence of that inspired tongue may have enchanted millions, 
but there are few who have sounded the depths of that noble heart. To 
see him in sickness and in health, in joy and in sadness, in the silent 
watches of the night, ami in the busy daytime — this it was to know and 
love him. To see the impetuous torrent of that resistless will ; the hurri- 
cane of those passions, hushed in peace, breathe calm and gently as a sum- 
mer zephyr; to feel the gentle pressure of that hand in the grasp of friend- 
ship, which in the rage of fiery conflict could hurl scorn and defiance at his 
foe; to see that eagle eye, which ofc would burn with patriotic ardor, or 
flash with the lightning of his angi-r, beam with the kindliest express- 
ions of tenderness and afl'ection ; — then it was, and then alone, we could 
learn to know and feel that that heart was warmed by the same sacred fire 
from above, which enkindled the light of his resplendent intellect. In the 
death of such a man even patriotism itself might pause, and for a moment 
stand aloof while friendship shed a tear of sorrow upon his bier. 

" ' His life was gentle ; and the elements 

So mixed in hira, that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, This was a man /' 

" But who can estimate his country's loss ? What tongue portray the 
desolation Avhich, in this ITouse, throughout this broad land, hangs a gloomy 
pall over his grief-stricken countrymen ? Uow poorly can words like mine 
translate the eloquence of a whole people's gi-ief for a patriot's death ! For 
a nation's loss let a nation mourn. For that stupendous calamity to our 
country and mankind, be the heavens hung with black ; let the wailing 
elements chant his dirge, and the universal heart of man throb with one 
common pang of grief and anguish." 



422 REMARKS OF MR. CASKIE. 

REMARKS OF MR. CASKIE* 

" Mr Speaker : I must try to lay a single laurel leaf ia that open coflSn 
•which is already garlanded by the eloquent tributes to the illustrious de- 
parted, which have been heard in this now solemn Hall — for I come, sir, 
from the district of his birrh. I represent on this floor that old Hanover 
BO proud of her Henrys — her Patrick Henry, and her Henry Clay. I 
speak for a people among whom he has always had as earnest and devoted 
friend.s as were ever the grace and glory of a patriot and statesman. 

" I shall attempt no sketch of his life. That you have had from other and 
abler hands than mine. Till yesterday that hfe was, of his own free gift, 
the property of his country ; to-day it belongs to her history. It is known 
to all, and will not be forgotten. Constant, stern opponent of his political 
school as has been my State, I say for her, that nowhere in tliis broad land 
are his great qualities more admired, or his death more mourned, than in 
Virginia. Well may this be so ; for she is his mother, and he was her son. 

" Mr. Speaker, when I remember the party strifes in which he was so 
much mingled, and through which we all more or less have passed, and 
then survey this scene, anl think how far, as the lightning has borne the 
news that he is gone, half-masted flags are drooping and church-bells are 
tollino-, and men are sorrowing — I can but feel that it is good for man to 
die. For when death enters, oh ! how the unkinduesses, and jealousies, 
and rivalries of life do vanish, and how, like incense fiom an altar, do pe?.ce 
and fiiendship, and all the sweet chaiities of our nature, rise around the 
corpse which was once a man. 

"And of truth, Mr. Speaker, never was more of veritable, noble man- 
hood cased in mortal mold than was found in him to whose memory thig 
brief and humble, but true and heartfelt, tribute is paid. But his eloquent 
voice is hushed, his high heart is siilled. 'Like a shock of corn fully ripe, 
he has been gathered to his fathers.' With more than threescore years 
and ten upon him, and honors clustered thick about him, in the full pos- 
session of unclouded intelle-t, and all the consolations of Christianity, he 
has met the fate which is evitable by none. L-imente.l by all his country- 
men, his name is bright on Fame's immortal roll. He has finished his 
course, and he has his crown. What more fruit can life bear ? What can 
it give that Henry Clay has not gained ? 

''Then, Mr. Speaker, around his tomb should be heard not only the dirge 
that wails his lo.ss, but the jubilant anthein which sounds that on the 
worid's irreat battle-field another victory has been won, another incontest- 
able greatness achieved." 

REMARKS OF MR. CnAXDLER.f 

"Mr. Speaker : It would .«eem as if the solemn invocation of the honor- 
able gentleman from Iv-nUicky [Mr. Ewing] was receiving an early answer, 

* .fnlm S. Caskie, of Virijinia. 

f Josepli R. Cnuiiiiicr, of reut^sylvania. 



REMARKS OF MR. CHANDLER. 423 

and that the hcavcus aiv hum; in black, ami the waihng elements are sing- 
ing the funeral dirge of Henry Clay. Amid this elemental gloom and the 
distress which pervades the nation at the death of Henry Clay, private 
grief should not ohtrude itself ujiDn notice, nor personal anguish seek for 
utterance. Silence is the best exponent of individual sorrow, and the 
heart that knoweth its own bitterness shrinks from an exposition of its 
affliction. 

"Could I have consulted my own feelings on the event which occupies 
the attention of the House at the present moment. I should even have for- 
borne attendance here, and. in tlie solitude and silence of my chamber, 
have mused upon the terrible lesson which has been administered to the 
people and the nation. Uut I represent a constituency who justly pride 
themselves upon the unwaveiing attachment they have ever felt and mani- 
fested to Henry Clay — a constant, pervading, hereditary love ; the son has 
taken up the father's affection, and, amid all the professions of political at- 
tachments to others, whom the accidents of party have made prominent, 
and the success of party has made powerful, true to his own instincts, and 
true to the sanctified legacy of his father, he has placed the name of Henry 
Clay forward and pre-eminent as the exponent of what is gieatest in states- 
manship and purest in patriotism. And even, sir, when party fealty caused 
other attachments to be avowed for party uses, the preference was lim- 
ited to the occupancy of office, and superiority admitted for Clay in all that 
is reckoned above party estimation. 

" Nor ought I to forbear to add that, as the senior member of the dele- 
gation which represents my Commonwealth, I am requested to utter the 
sentiments of the people of Pennsylvania at large, who yield to no portion 
of this great Union in their appreciation of the talents, their reverence for 
the lofty patriotism, their admiration of the statesmanship, and hereafter 
their love of the memory of Henry Clay. 

"I can not, therefore, be silent on this occasion, without injustice to the 
affections of my constituency, even though I painfully feel how inadeipiate 
to the reverence and love my people have toward that statesman umst be 
all that I have to utter on this occasion. 

" I know not, Mr. Chairman, where now the nation is to find the men she 
needs in peril — either other calls than those of politics are holding in 
abeyance the talents which the nation may need, or else a generation is to 
pass undistinguished by the greatness of our statesmen. Of the noble yiinds 
that have swayed the Senate, one yet survives in the matuiity of powerful 
intellect, carefully disciplined and nobly exercised. May He who has thus 
far blessed our nation, spare to her and the Avorld, that of which the world 
must always envy our country the possession. But my business is with the 
dead. 

" The biography of Henry Clay, from his childhood upward, is too fa- 
miliar to every American for me to trespass on the time of this House by 
a reference directly thereto ; and the honorable gentlemen who have pre- 



424 REMARKS OF MR. CHANDLER. 

ceded me have, with aft'ectionate hand and appropriate deHcacy, swept 
away the dust which nearly fourscore years have scattered over a part of 
the record, and have made our pride greater in his life, and our grief more 
poignant at his death, by showing some of those passages which attract 
respect to our republican institutions, of whieli Mr, Clay's whole hfe was 
the able sui>i>r.rt and most successful illustration. 

'' It would, then, be a work of supererogation fur me to renew that efibrt, 
though inquiry into the hfe and conduct of Henry Clay would present new 
themes for private eulogy, new grounds for public gratitude. 

" How rare is it, ^Mr. Speaker, that the great man living, can, with con- 
fidence, rely on extensive personal friendship, or, dying, think to awaken a 
sentiment of reofret bevond that which includes the public loss or the dis- 
appointment of individual hopes ! Yet, sir, the message which yesterday 
went forth from this city, that Henry Clay was dead, brought sorrow — per- 
sonal, private, special sorrow — to the hearts of thousands, each of whom 
felt that from his own love for, his long attachment to, his disinterested 
hopes in, Henry Clay, he had a particular sorrow to cherish and express, 
which weighed upon his heart separate from the sense of national loss. 

" No man, Mr. Speaker, in our nation had the art so to identify himself 
■with public measures of the most momentous character, and to maintain, 
at the same time, almost universal atlection, like that great statesman. His 
business, from his bovhood, was with national concerns, and he dealt Avith 
them as with familiar things. And yet his sympathies were with individual 
interests, enterprises, atiections, joys, and sorrows ; and while eveiy patriot 
bowed in humble deference to his lofty attainments and heartfelt gratitude 
for his national services, almost every man in this vast Kcpublic knew that 
the great statesman was, in feeling and ex[ierieiice, identified with his own 
position. Hence the universal love of the people ; hence their enthusiasm, 
in all times, for his fame. Hence, sir, their present giief. 

" Manv other public men of our conntry liave distinguished themselves, 
and brouuht honor to the nation, by superiority in some ])eculiar branch 
of the public ser\-ice ; but it seems to have been the gift of Mr. Clay to 
have acquired peculiar eminence in every path of duty he was called to 
tread. In the earnestness of debate, which great j^ublic interests and dis- 
tinguished opposing talents excited in this House, he had no superior in 
energy, force, or effect. Yet, as the presiding officer, by blandness of lan- 
guajjft", and firmness of purpose, he soothed and made orderly ; and thus, 
by oflicial dignity, he commanded the respect which energy had secufed to 
him on the floor. 

" Wherever ofhcial or social duties demanded an exercise of liis powers, 
there was a preeminence which seemed prescriptively his own. In the lofty 
debate of the Senate, and the stirring harangues to popular assemblages, 
he was the orator of tlie nation and of the people ; and the sincerity of pur- 
pose and thf unity of desiofn evinced in all he said or did, fixed in the public 
mind a confidence strong and expansive as the affections he had won. 



REMARKS OF MR. BAYLY. 425 

" Year after year, sir, lias ITciny Clay l>een achiovino^ the work of the 
mission witli wliicli he was intrusted; and it Avas only Avhi'U tin' warmest 
wishes of his warmest friends were disappointed, tliat he entered on the 
fruition of a patriot's highest hopes, and stood in the full enjoyment of that 
admiration and eonfidenee which nothinij lint the antag-onisni of party 
relations could have divided. 

" IIow rich that enjoyment must have been, it is only for us to imagine. 
How eminently deserved it was, we and tlie world can attest. 

" The love and the devotion of his political friends were cheering and 
grateful to his heart, and were acknowledged in all his life — were recog- 
nized even to his death. 

" The contest in the Senate Chamber or the forum was rewarded with 
success achieved, and the great victor could eiijoy the ovation which j^artial 
friendship or the gratitude of the benefited prepared. But the triumph of 
his life was no party achievement. It was not in the applause which ad- 
miring friends and defeated antagonists offered to his measureless success 
that he found the reward of his labors and comprehended the extent of his 
mission, 

" It was only when friends and antagonists paused in their contests, 
appalled at the public difficulties and national dangers which had been 
accumulating, unseen and unregarded ; it was oidv when the nation itself 
felt the danger, and acknowledged the inefficacy of party action as a rem- 
edy, that Henry Clay calculated the full extent of his powers, and enjoyed 
the reward of their saving exercise. Then, sir, you saw, and I saw, party 
designations dropped, and party allegiance disavowed, and anxious patriots, 
of all localities and names, turn toward the country's benefactor as the man 
for tlie terrible exigences of the hour ; and the sick chamber of Henry 
Clay became the Delphos whence were given out the oracles that presented 
the means and the measures of our Union's safety. There, sir, and not in 
the high ]>lacos of the country, were the labors and sacrifices of half a 
century to be rewarded and closed. With his right yet in that Senate 
which he had entered the youngest, and lingered till the eldest, member, 
he felt that his work was done, and the object of his life accomplished. 
Every cloud that had dimmed the noonday luster had been dissipated ; and 
the retiring orb, which sunk from the sight of the nation in fullness and in 
beauty, will yet pour up the horizon a posthumous glory that shall tell of 
the splendor and greatness of the luminary that has passed away." 

REMARKS OF MR. BAYLY.* 

" Mr. Speaker : Although I have been all my life a party opponent of 
Mr. Clay, yet from my boyhooil I have been upon terras of personal friend- 
ship with him. More than twenty years ago I was introduced to him by 
my father, who was his personal friend. From that time to this, there has 
existed between us as great personal intimacy as the disparity in our years 

* Thomas H. Bayly, of Virginia. 



426 REMARKS OF MR. BAYLY. . 

and our political difference would justify. After I became a member of 
this House, and upon his return to the Senate, subsequent to his resignation 
in 1842, the warm regard upon his part for the daughter of a devoted 
friend of forty years' standing, made him a constant visitor at my house, 
and frequently a guest at my table. These circumstances make it proper 
that, upon this occasion, I should pay this last tiilute to his mcraorv. I 
not only knew him well as a statesman, but I knew him better in the most 
unreserved social intercourse. The most happy circumstance, as I esteem 
it, of my political life has been, that I have thus known each of our great 
Congressional triumvirate. 

" I, sir, never knew a man of higher qualities than Mr. Clay. His very 
faults originated in liigh qualities. With greater self-possession, with 
greater self-reliance, than any man I ever knew, he possessed moral and 
physical courage to as high a degree as any man who ever lived. Confid- 
ent in his own judgment, never doubling as to his own course, fearing no 
obstacle that might lie in his way, it was almost impossible that he should 
not have been imperious in his character. Never doubting himself as to 
what he thought duty and patriotism required at bis hands, it was natural 
that he should sometimes have been impatient with those more doubting 
and timid than himself. His were qualities to have made a great general, 
as they were qualities that did make him a great statesman ; and these 
qualities were so obvious that, during the darkest period of our late war 
with Great Britain, Mr. Madison had determined, at one time, to make him 
General-in-Chief of the American army. 

" Sir, it is but a short time since the American Congress buried the first 
one that went to the grave of that great triumvirate. We are now called' 
upon to bury another. The third, thank God ! still lives, and long may he 
live to enliirhten his countrvmen bv his wisdom, and set them the exam- 
pie of exalted patriotism. Sir, in the lives and characters of these great 
men, there is much resembling those of the great tiiumvirate of the British 
Parliament. It difi'ers principally in this : Burke preceded Fox and Pitt to 
the tomb. Webster survives Clay and Calhoun. When Fox and Pitt 
dieil, there were no others to fill their place. Webster still lives, now that 
Calhoun and Clay are dead, the unrivale 1 statesman of his country Like 
Fox and Pitt, Clay and Calhoun lived in troubled times. Like Fox and 
Pitt, they were each of I hem the leader of rival parties. Like Fox and Pitt, 
they wcie idolized by their respective fiiends. Like Fox and Pitt, they 
died about the same time, and in the public service; and as has been said 
of Fox and Pitt, Clay and Calhoun died witli 'their harness upon them.' 
Like Fox and Pitt — 

• " ' With more than mortal powers endowed, 

How high tliey soared above tlie crowd; 
Theirs was no common party race, 
Jostliiip by dark iiilri^up for place — 
Like fabled pods, tlioir iniphty war 
Sbook realms aud nations in its jar. 



REMARKS OF MR, VENABLE. 427 

Beneath each banner, proud to stand, 
Looked up the noblest of the land. 
* ■* * * 

" ' Here let their discord with tiieni die, 
Speak not for those a separate doom, 
Whom fito made brothers in the tomb; 
But search the land of living men, 
"Where wilt thou find their like again ?' " 

REMARKS OF MR. VENABLE.* 

" Mr. Speaker : I trust that I shall be pardoned for adding a few words 
upon this sad occasion. The life of the illuslrious statesman which has just 
terminated is so interwoven with our histoiy, and the luster of his great 
name so profusely shed over its pages, that simple admiration of his high 
qualities might well be my excuse. But it is a sacred privilege to draw 
neai' — to contemiilalc the end of the great and good. It is profitable as 
well as purifying to look upon and realize the office of death in removing 
all that can excite jealousy or produce distrust, and to gaze upon the \niiues 
which, like jewels, have survived his powers of destruction. The light 
which radiates from the life of a great and patriotic statesman, is often 
dimmed by the mists which party conflicts throw around it. But the blast 
which strikes him down purifies the atmosphere which surrounded him in 
life, and it shines forth in bright examples and well-earned renown. It is 
then (hat we witness the sincere acknowledgment of gratitude by a people 
who, having enjoyed the benefits ai'ising from the services of an eminent 
statesman, embalm his name in their memory and hearts. We should 
cherish such recoiled ions as well from patriotism as self-respect. Ours, sir, 
is now the duty in ihe midst of sad ess, in this high place, in tlie face of 
our Rei)ub1ic, and before the world, to p.iy this tribute by acknowledging 
the merits of our colleague whose name has o:namented the Journals of 
Congress for near half a century. Few, very few, have ever combined the 
high intellectual powers and distinguished gifts of this illustrious senator. 
Cast in tlie finest mold by nature, he more than fulfilled the anticipations 
which were indulged by those who looked to a distinguished cai'eer as the 
certain n suit of that zeahjus pursuit of fame and usefulness upon which he 
entered in early fife. Of tlie incidents of that life it is unnecessary for me 
to speak — they are as f imiliir as household words, and must be equally 
familiar to those who come after us. But it is useful to refresh memory by 
recurrence to some of the events which marked his career. We know, sir, 
that there is much that is in common in the histories of distinguished men. 
The elements which consiilute greatness are the same in all times; hence 
those who have been the admiration of their generations present in their 
lives jr.uch which, altliou :h really great, ceases to be remarkable, because 
illustrated by such numerous examples — 

* Abraham W. Venable, of North Carolina. 



428 REMARKS OF MR. VENABLE. 

" ' But there are deeds which should not pass away, 
And names that must not wither.' 

" Of such deeds the life of Henry Clay affords many and bright exam- 
ples. His own name, and those with whom he associated, shall live with 
a freshness which time can not impair, and shine with a brightness which 
pa.<sing years can not dim. His advent into public life was as remarkable 
for the circumstances as it was Lnlliaiit in its effect. It was at a time in 
which genius and learning, statesmanship and eloquence, made the Amer- 
ican Congress the most august boJy in the world. He was the cotem- 
porary of a race of statesmen — some of whom then administering the 
Government, and others retiring and retired from ofiBee — presented an ar- 
ray of ability unsurpassed in our history. The elder Adams, Jefterson, 
Madison, Clinton, Gallatin, and Monroe, stood before the Republic in the 
maturity of their fame ; while Calhoun, John Quiucy Adams, Lowndes, 
Crawford, Gaston, Randolph, and Cheves, with a host of others, rose a 
bright galaxy upon our horizon. He who won his spurs in such a field, 
earned his knighthood. Distinction amid such competition was true re- 
nown — 

" ' The fame which a man wins for himself is best — 
That he may call his o^vn.' 

"It was with great satisfaction that I heard my friend from Kentucky 
[Mr. Breckinridge], the immediate representative of Mr. Clay, detail a con- 
versation which disclosed the feelings of that eminent man in relation to 
his Christian hope. These, !Mr. Speaker, are rich memorials, precious 
reminiscences. A Christian statesman is the glory of his age, and his 
memoiy will be glorious in after-times ; it reflects a hght coming from a 
source which clouds can not dim, nor shadows obscure. It was my priv- 
ilege, also, a short time since, to converse with this distinguished states- 
man on the subject of his hopes in a future state. Feeling a deep interest, 
I asked him frankly what were his hopes in the world to which he was 
evidently hastening. ' I am pleased,' said he, ' my friend, that you have 
introduced the subject. Conscious that I nmst die very soon, I love to me- 
ditate upon the most important of all interests. I love to convei-se and to 
hear conversations about them. The vanity of the world, and its insuf- 
ficiency to satisfy the soul of man, has been long a settled conviction of my 
mind. Man's inability to secure by his own merits the approbation of God, 
I feel to be true. I trust in the atonement of the Saviour of men, as the 
ground of my acceptance and my hope of salvation. My taith is feeble, 
but I ho|»o in His mercy and trust in His promises.' To such declarations 
I lisfi'iied with the deepest interest, as I did on another occasion, when he 
said : ' I am willing to abide the will of Heaven, and ready to die when 
that will shall determine it.' 

" He is gone, sir, professing the humble hope of a Christian. That hope, 



REMARKS OF MR. HAVEN. 429 

alone, sir, can sustain you, or any of us. There is one lonely and crushed 
heart that has howed before this afflictive event. Far away, at Aslilan.l, a 
Avido\ve<l wife, prevented by feeble health from attending his bedside and 
soothing his painful hours, she has thought even the electric speed of the in- 
telligence daily transmitted of his condition, too slow for her aching, anx- 
ious bosom. She will find consolation iu his Chi-istian submission, and will 
draw all of comfort that such a case admits from the assurance that nothing 
was neglected by the kindness of friends which could supply her place. 
Mav the guardianship of the widow's God be her protection, and Ilis con- 
solations her support T' 

REMARKS OF MR. HA YEN.* 

" Mr. Speaker : Representing a constituency distinguished for the con- 
stancy of its devotion to the political principles of Mr. Clay, and for 
its unwaveiing attachment to his fortunes and his person — sympathizing 
deeply with those whose more intimate personal relations with him have 
made tliem feel most profoundly this general bereavement — I desire to 
say a few words of him, since he has fallen among us, and beeu taken to 
his rest. 

" After the finished eulogies which have been so eloquently pronounced 
by the honorable gentlemen who have preceded me, I will avoid a course 
of remark which might otherwise be deemed a repetition, and refer to the 
bearing of some of the acts of the deceased upon the interests and destinies 
of my own State. The influence of his public life, and of his purely Amer- 
ican character, the beuefits of his wise forecast, and the results of his eftbrts 
for wholesome and rational progress, are nowhere more strongly exhibited 
than in the State of New York. 

"Our appreciation of his anxiety for the general diffusion of knowledge 
and education, is manifested iu our twelve thousand public libraries, our 
equal number of common schools, and a large number of higher institu- 
tions of learning — all of which drew portions of their support from the 
.share of the proceeds of the pubhc lands, which his wise policy gave to 
"our State. Our whole people are thus constantly reminded of their great 
oblio-ations to the statesman whose death now afflicts the nation with sor- 
row. Our extensive public works attest our conviction of the utility and 
importance of the system of Internal Improvements he so ably advocated ; 
and their value and productiveness aflFord a most striking evidence of the 
soundness and wisdom of his policy. Nor has his influence been less sen- 
siblv felt in our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. Every depart- 
ment of human industry acknowledges his fostering care, and the people 
of New York are, in no small measure, indebted to his statesmanship for 
the wealth, comfort, contentment, and happiness so widely and generally 
diflused throughout the State. 

" Well may New York cherish his memory and acknowledge with grati- 
* Solomon G. Haven, of New York State. 



430 RE3IARKS OF MR. RROOKS. 

tuJe tlie benefits that his life has conferred. That memory ayUI be cher- 
ished throughout the Ivpublic. 

" Wlien internal di>x-ord and sectional strife have threatened the inr 
tegrity of the Union, his just weight of character, his large experience, 
his powers of conciliation and acknowledged patriotism, have enabled 
him to pacify the angry passions of his countrymen, and to raise the bow 
of promise and of hope upon the clouds which have darkened the political 
horizon. 

'• lie has passed from among us, ripe in wisdom and pure in character — 
.^ull of years and full of honors. He has breathed his last amid the bless- 
ings of a united and a grateful nation. 

" He was, in my judgment, particularly fortunate in the time of his 
death. 

" He lived to see his country, guided by his wisdom, come once again 
unhurt out of tr}'ing sectional difficulties and domestic strife ; and he 
has closed his eyes in death upon that country while it is in the enjoyment 
of profound peace, busy with industry, and blessed with unequaled pros- 
perity. 

"It can fall to the lot of but few to die amid so warm a gratitude flow- 
ing from the hearts of their countrvmen : and none can leave a bri'i'hter 
example or a more enduring fame." 

REilARKS OF MR. BROOKS.* 

" Mr. Speaker : I rise to add my humble tribute to the memory of a 
great and good man now to be gathered to his fathers. I speak for and 
from a community, in whose heart is enshrined the name of him whom we 
mourn ; who, however much Virginia, the land of his birth, or Kentucky, 
the land of his adoption, may love him, is, if possible, loved where I live 
yet more. If idolatry had been Christian, or allowable even, he would 
have been our idol. But, as it is, for a quarter of a century now, his bust, 
his portrait, or some medal, has been one of our household gods, gracing 
not alone the saloon, and the halls of wealth, but the humblest room or 
workshop of almost every mechanic or laborer. Proud monuments of his 
policy as a statesman, as my colleague has justly said, are all about us, and 
we owe to him, in a good degree, our growth, our greatness, our prosperity 
and liappiness, as a people. 

"The great field of Henry Clay, Mr. Speaker, has been here, on the 
floor of this House, and in the other wing of the Capitol. He has held 
posts of higher nomin il distinction, but they are all eclipsed by the bril- 
liancy of his career as a Conirressman. What of e;lorv he has aciiiiircd, or 
what most endears him to his countrymen, have been won here, amid these 
pillars, under these domes of the Capitol. 

" ' SI queen's monumentum, circumspi'ce.' 

"The mind of Mr. Clay ha=! been the governing mind of the countiy, 
* James Brooks, of Now York city. 



REMARKS OF MR. BROOKS. 431 

more or less, ever since lie has been on the stage of public action. Tn a 
minority, or a majority — more, perhaps, even in a minority than in the 
majoiity — he seems to have had some commission, Divine as it were, to 
persuade, to convince, to govern other men. Ilis jjatriotism, his foresight, 
his grand conceptions, have created measures which the secret fascination 
of his manners, in-door, or his irresistible eloquence without, have enabled 
him almost always to frame into laws. 

" Adverse administrations have yielded to him, or been borne down by 
him, or he has taken them captive as a leader, and carried the country and 
Congress with him. This power he has wielded now for nearly half a cen-^ 
tury, with nothing but reason and eloquence to back him. And yet, when 
he came here, years ago, he came from a then frontier State of this Union, 
heralded by no loud trumpet of fame, nay, quite unknown, unfortified even 
by any position, social or pecuniary; to quote his own words, his only 
'heritage had been infancy, indigence, and ignorance.' 

" In these days, Mr. Speaker, when mere civil qualifications for high 
public place — when long ci\nl training and practical statesmanship — are 
held subordinate, a most discouraging prospect would be before our rising 
young men, were it not for some such names as Lowndes, Crawford, Clin- 
ton, Gaston, Calhoun, and Clay, scattered along the pages of our history, 
as stars or constellations, in a cloudless sky. They shine forth and show 
us that if the Chief Magistracy can not be won by such qualifications, a 
memory among men can be — a hold upon posterity as firm, as lustrous — 
nay, more imperishable. In the Capitolium of Rome there are long rows 
of marble slabs, on which are recorded the names of the Roman Consuls ; 
but the eye wanders over this wilderness of letters but to light up and to 
kindle upon some Cato or Cicero. To win such fame, thus unsullied, as 
Mr. Clay has won, is worth any man's ambition. And how was it won ? 
By courting the shifting gales of popularity ? No, never! By truckling 
to the schemes, the arts and seductions of the demagogue ? Never, never ! 
His hardest battles as a public lAan — his greatest, most illustrious achieve- 
ments — have been against, at first, an adverse public opinion. To gain an 
imperishable name, he has often braved the perishable popularity of the 
moment. That sort of courage which, in a public man, I deem the highest 
of all courage ; that sort of courage most necessary under our form of 
government to guide as well as to save a State, Mr. Clay was possessed of 
— more than any public man I ever knew. Mere physical courage, valuable, 
indispensable though it be, we share but with the l)rute — but moral 
courage, to dare to do right, amid all temptations to do wrong, is, as it 
seems to me, the very highest species, the noblest heroism, under institu- 
tions like ours. ' I had rather be right than be President,' was Mr. Clay's 
sublime reply when pressed to refrain from some measure that would mar 
his popularity. These lofty words were a clew to his whole character — the 
secret of his hold upon the heads as well as hearts of the American people 
— nay, the key to his immortality. 



432 REMARKS OF MR. FAULKNER. 

" Another of the ke\ s, Mr. Speaker, of bis universal reputation, was bis 
intense nationality. "\Vben taunted but recently, almost within our hear- 
ing, as it were, on the floor of the Senate, by a Southern senator, as being a 
Southern man unfaithful to the South, his indignant but patriotic exclama- 
tion was ; ' I know no Soicth— no North, no East, no West.' The country, 
the whole country, loved, adored, reverenced such a man. The soil of , 
Viririiiia may be his birthplace : the sod of Kentucky will cover his grave 
—what was' mortal they claim— but the spirit, the soul, the genius of the 
mighty man, the immortal part, these belong to his country and to his 
God." 

REMARKS OF MR. FAULKNER.* 

" After the many able and eloquent addresses to which we have listened 
this morning, I fear, sir, that it will not be in my power to add any thing 
to the interest of this occasion. And yet, representing, as I do, in part, 
that State which gave birth to the distinguished man whose death has this 
day been announced on this floor, and having for many years held toward 
him the most cordial relations of friendship, personal and political, I feel 
that I should fail to discharge an appropriate duty, if I permitted this oc- 
casion to pass by without some expression of the feeling which such an 
event is s(j well calculated to elicit. It is true, sir, that this intelligence 
does not fall upon our ears unexpectedly ; for months the public mind has 
been prepared for the great national loss which we now deplore ; and yet, 
as familiar as the daily and hourly reports have made us with his hopeless 
condition and gradual decline, and although 

" ' Like a shadow thrown 
Softly and sweetly from a passhig cloud, 
Death fell upon him,' 

it is impossible that a light of such surpassing splendor should be, as it is 
now, forever extinguished from our view, without producing a shock, deep- 
ly and painfully felt to the utmost limits of this great Republic. Sir, we 
all feel that a mighty intellect has passed from among us ; but, happily for 
this country, hajipily for mankind, not until it had accomplished to some 
extent the exalted mission for which it had been sent upon this earth — not 
until it had reached the full maturity of its usefulness and power — not un- 
til it had shed a briirht and radiant luster over our national renown — not 
until time had enabled it to bequeath the rich treasures of its thought and 
experience for the guidance and instruction of the present and of succeed- 
ing generations. 

" Sir, it is difficult — it is impossible — within the limits allowed for re- 
marks upon occasions of this kind, to do justice to a great historical char- 
acter like Henry Clay, lb' was one of that class of men whom Scaliger 
designates as homines centar'd — men that appear upon the earth but once 
in a CL-ntury. His fame is the growth of yeai-s, and it would require time 
* Charles James Faulkner, of Virginia. 



REMARKS OF MR. FAULKNER. 433 

to unfold the elements whidi have combined to impart to it so much of 
stability and grandeur. Volumes have already been written, and volumes 
will continue to be written, to record those eminent and distinguished pub- 
lic services which have placed him in the front rank of American states- 
men and patriots. The highest talent, fired by a fervid and patriotic en- 
thusiasm, has exhausted, and will continue to exhaust its powers, to portray 
those striking and generous incidents of his life, those shining and cap- 
tivating qualities of his heart, which have made him one of the most be- 
loved, as he was one of the most admired of men ; and yet the subject 
itself will remain as fresh and exhaustless as if hundreds of the best intel- 
lects of the land had not quaffed the inspiration of their genius from the 
ever-gushing and overflowing fountains of his fame. It is impossible that 
a reputation so grand and colossal as that which attaches to the name of 
Henry Clay, could rest for its base upon any single virtue, however strik- 
ing, or upon any single act, no matter how marked or distinguished. 
Such a reputation as he has left behind him, could only be the result of a 
long hfe of illustrious public service. And such it truly was. For nearly 
half a century he has been a prominent actor in all the stirring and event- 
ful scenes of American history ; fashioning and molding many of the most 
important measures of public policy by his bold and sagacious mind, and * 
arresting others by his unconquerable energy and resistless force of elo- 
quence. And, however much the members of this body may differ in 
opinion as to the wisdom of many of his views of national domestic policy, 
there is not one upon this floor — no, sir, not one in this nation — who will 
deny to him frankness and directness as a public man — a genius for states- 
manship of the highest order — extraordinary capacities for public useful- 
ness, and an ardent and elevated patriotism, without stain and without 
reproach. * * * 

" One of the most distinguished characteristics of Mr. Clay as a public 
man, was his loyalty to truth and to the honest convictions of his own 
mind. He deceived no man — he would not permit his own heart to be 
deceived by any of those seductive influences which too often warp the 
judgment of men in pubHc life. He never paused to consider how far any 
step which he was about to take would lead to his own personal advance- 
ment; he never calculated what he might lose or what he might gain by 
his advocacy of, or his opposition to, any particular measure. His single 
inquiry was, ' Is it right ? Is it in accordance with the Constitution of the 
land ? Will it redound to the permanent welfare and interest of the coun- 
try V When satisfied upon these points, his deteiTnination was fixed — his 
purpose was immovable. * * * And yet, sir, with all of that personal 
and moral intrepidity which so eminently marked the character of Mr. 
Clav — with his well-known inflexibility of purpose, and unyielding de- 
termination — such was the genuine sincerity of his patriotism, and such 
his thorough comprehension of those principles of compromise, upon 
which the whole structure of our Government was founded, that no one 

28 



434 REMARKS OF MESSRS. PARKER AND GENTRY. 

was more prompt to relax the rigor of his policy the moment he per- 
ceived that it was calculated to disturb the harmony of the States, or en- 
dauber, iu any decree, the stability of the Government. With him, the 
love of this Uuion was a pcission — an absorbing sentiment which gave 
color to every act of his public life. It triumphed over party ; it tri- 
umphed over policy; it subdued the natural fierceness and haughtiness of 
his temper, and brought him into the most kindly and cordial relations 
with all those who, upon all other questions, were deeply and bitterly op- 
posed to him. It has been asserted, sir, upon high medical authority, and 
doubtless with truth, that his life was, in all probability, shortened ten 
years by the arduous :md extraordinary labors which he assumed at the 
memorable session of 1850. If so, he has added the crowning glory of 
the Martyr to the spotless fame of the Patriot ; and we may well hope 
that a great national pacification, purchased at such a sacrifice, will long 
continue to cement the bonds of this great and glorious Union. 



* *" 



REMARKS OF MR. TARKER.* 

" Mr. Speaker : This is a solemn — a consecrated hour. And I would. 
, not detain the members of the House fiom indulg'^ng in the silent eloquence 
of their own feelings, so grateful to hearts chastened as ours. 

" But I can not restrain an expression from a bosom pained with its full- 
ness. 

" Wlien my young thoughts first took cognizance of the fact that I have 
a country, my eye was attracted by the magnificent proportions of llenry 

Clay. 

" The idea absorbed me then, that he was, above all other men, the em- 
bodiment of my country's genius. 

" I have watched him ; I have studied him ; I have admired him ; and — 
God forgive me ! for he was but a man, 'of like passions with us' — I fear 
I have idolized him, until this hour. 

" l)ut he has gone from among men ; and it is for us now to awake and 
apply ourselves, with renewed fervor and increased fidelity, to the welfare 
of the countiy he loved so well and served so truly and so long — the glo- 
rious countiy yet saved to us ! * * *" 

REMARKS OF MR. GEXTRY.f 

" Mr. Speaker : I do not rise to pronounce a eulogy on the life, and char- 
actor, and public services of the illustrious orator and statesman whoso 
death this nation deplores. Suitably to perform that task, a higher elo- 
quence than I possess might essay in vain. The gushing tears of the nation, 
tlie deep giief which oppresses the hearts of more than twenty millions of 
people, constitute a more eloquent culogium upon the life, and character, 

* Samuel W. Parker, of Indiana. 
\ Meredith P. Gcntrj, of Tennessee. 



REMARKS OF MESSRS. BOWIE AND WALSH. 435 

and patriotic services of Ileniy Clay, than the power of language can ex- 
press. In no part of our country is that character more admired, or those 
public services more appreciated, than in the State which I have the honor, 
in part, to represent. I claim for the people of that State a full participa- 
tion in the general woe Avhich the sad announcement of to-day will every- 
where inspire." 

REMARKS OF MR. BOWIE.* 

" I rise not to utter the measured phrases of premeditated woe, but to 
speak as would my constituents speak, if they stood around the grave now 
opened to receive the mortal remains, not. of a statesman only, hut of a 
beloved friend. If there is a State in this Union, other than Kentucky, 
which sends up a wail of more bitter and sincere sorrow than another, that 
State is Maryland. In her midst this departed statesman was a frequent 
and a welcome guest. At many a board, and many a fireside, his noble 
form was the light of the eyes and the idol of the heart. Throughout her 
borders, in cottage, liamlet, and cities, his name is a household word — his 
thoughts are familiar sentences. Though not permitted to be first at his 
cradle, Maryland would be last at his tomb. Through all the phases of 
political fortune, amid all the storms which darkened his career, Maryland 
cherished him in her inmost heart, as the most gifted, patriotic, and elo- 
quent of men ; and for him daily, to this hour, prayers ascended, night and 
morning, for his temporal and eternal welfare. Maryland would, in the 
language of inspiration, exclaim, ' This day hath a prince and a ruler fallen 
in Israel '.' Daughters of America, weep for him who hath ' clothed you 
in scarlet and fine linen ! ' 

" The husbandman at his plow, the artisan at the anvil, the seaman on 
the mast, will pause and drop a tear when he hears that Clay is no more. 

" The advocate for freedom in both hemispheres, he will be lamented 
alike on the shores of the Hellespont and the banks of the Mississippi and 
Orinoco. The freed men of Liberia, learning and practicing the art of 
self-government, and civilizing Africa, have lost a patron and protector, a 
father and friend. America mourns the departure of a luminary, which 
enlightened and illustrated the continent ; the United States, a counselor 
of deepest wisdom and purest purpose ; mankind, the advocate of human 
rights and constitutional liberty." 

REMARKS OP MR WALSII.f 

" Mr. Speaker : The illustrious man whose death we this day mourn was 
so long my political leader — so long almost the object of my personal 
idolatry — that I can not allow that he shall go down to the grave without a 
word at least of afiectionate remembrance — without a tribute to a memory 

* Richard J. Bowie, of Maryland. 

f Thomas Yates Walsh, of Maryland. 



436 EEMARKS OF MR. WALSH. 

which will exact tributes as long as a heart shall be found to beat within 
the bosom of civilized man, and human agency shall be adequate in any 
form to give them an expression. And even, sir, if I had no heartfelt sigh 
to pour out here — if I had no tear for that coffin's lid — I should do injust- 
ice to those whose representative in part I am, if I did not, in this presence, 
and at this time, raise my voice to swell the accents of the profoundest 
public sorrow. * ''• * 

" "We can all remember, sir, when adverse political results disheartened 
his friends, and made them feel even as men without hope, his own clarion 
voice was still heard in the assertion and the pursuit of rights, as bold and 
as eloquent as when it first proclaimed the freedom of the seas, and its tal- 
ismanic tones struck off the badges of bondage from the lands of the Incas 
and the plains of Marathon. 

" Mr. Speaker, in the exaltation of the statesman, he did not forget the 
duties of the man. He was an affectionate adviser on all points wherein 
inexperienced youth might require counsel. lie was a disinterested sym- 
pathizer in personal sorrows that called for consolation. He was ever up- 
right and honorable in all the duties incident to his relations in life. 

" To an existence so lovely. Heaven in its mercy granted a fitting and 
appropriate close. It was the prayer, Mr. Speaker, of a distinguished citi- 
zen, who died some years since in this metropolis, even while his spirit was 
fluttering for its final flight, that he might depart gracefully. It may not 
be presinnptuous to say, that what was in that instance the aspiration of 
a chivalric gentleman, was in this the realization of the dying Christian, in 
■which was blended all that human dignity could require, with all that 
di\ine grace had conferred — in which the firmness of the man was only 
transcended by the fervor of the penitent. 

" A short period before his death, he remarked to one by his bedside 
that he was fearful he was becoming selfish, as his thoughts were entirely 
withdrawn from the world, and centered upon eternity. This, sir, was but 
the purification of his noble spirit from all the dross of earth — a happy 
illustration of what the religious muse has so sweetly sung : 

" ' No sin to stain — no lure to stay 
The soul, as homo she springs ; 
Thy sunshine on her joyful way, 
Thy freedom on her wings.' 

" Mr. Speaker, the solemnities of this hour may soon be forgotten. We 
may come back from the new-made grave only still to show that we con- 
sider ' eternity the bubble, life and time the enduring substance.' We may 
not pause long enough by the brink to ask which of us revelers of the day 
shall next be at rest. But be assured, sii', that upon the records of mortal- 
ity will never be inscribed a name more illustrious than that of the states- 
man, patriot, and friend, whom the nation mourns." 



REMARKS OF THE SPEAKER. 437 



THE SPEAKER.* 

"The Chair asks leave to give notice to the House, that members of the 
Senate and House will form a procession at the National Hotel to-morrow, 
at twenty minutes past eleven, to accompany the remains of Mr. Clay to 
the Capitol for funeral ceremonies. The remains will pass thence to the 
cars, and depart for Kentucky." 

The question was then put, on the adoption of the resolutions proposed 
by Mr. Breckinridge, and they were unanimously adopted, 
And the House adjourned. 

* Linn Boyd, of Kentucky. 



NOTE F— Page 262. 



The funeral cortege appointed by the Senate of the United 
States, to accompany the remains of Mr. Clay from Washington 
to Lexington, rested for the night at B;ihimore, where the pro- 
foundest sorrow reigned, and every befitting honor was rendered 
to the memory of the iUnstrious deceased, by the civic authorities, 
by the mihtary, and l)y all ranks of people. The next morning 
the cortege, with their charge, took the cars for Philadelphia, ac- 
companied to the railroad depot by a civic and military proces- 
sion. Crowds of sorrowing people, of all ages, and both sexes, 
flocked to the villages and towns on the road, to express their 
sympathy and grief. At Wilmington, Delaware, the concourse 
was great ; and they were gratified by being permitted to ap- 
proach and see the coffin of the statesman who had been so 
much loved and honored in the State of Delaware. The sun 
was down, and the shades of night came over the city of Philadel- 
phia, before the cortege arrived. But the preparations for the 
reception were on the largest scale, and the procession to the old 
State House, where, in the Hall of Independence, the corpse 
was deposited for the night, under a guard of honor, was of the 
most imposing and solemn character. It is needless to say, that 
the great heart of Philadelphia was moved with sorrow as never 
before. Ever honored there while living, he was wept there by 
tens of thousands as he was borne through their midst in his 
coffin. After affording an opportunity, as far as possible, for the 
citizens, early in the morning of Saturday, to walk around the 
remains of one so much beloved, a committee from Philadclj)hia 
took charge of the body, and, being escorted to the river by a 
military and civic procession, moved forward by steamboat and 
railway, to meet a committee from New York, who received the 
sacred trust, and took it in charge, till, in the evening, it was 
deposited in the Governor's room at ilie City Hall, there to rest 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 439 

over the Sabbath, under a guard of honor. Even the city of 
New York was hushed to solemn silence on this mournful occa- 
sion ; and it was computed that a hundred thousand persons vis- 
ited the Governor's room on Saturday evening and Sunday, 
without the slightest disorder, and all in solemn silence. We 
need not say, tliat the public demonstrations were all suited to 
the occasion ; but the public fmieral at New York was not sol- 
emnized till the 20th of July, which was the greatest and most 
solemn pageant of the kind ever witnessed in that city. 

Early on Monday morning the remains of Mr. Clay were re- 
moved from the City Hall to the steamboat for Albany, which were 
saluted on the passage by half-mast flags, and by other symbols, 
from every craft on the river, and by booming guns from every 
village and town on the Hudson, between New York and Al- 
bany. The city of Albany had the honor of receiving and 
guarding the remains of the great statesman for the niglit, and 
she discharged the duty in a manner worthy of herself. Early 
in the morning the cortege moved on for Buflalo, stopping at the 
principal towns and villages to gratify the assembled multitudes, 
and to permit them to manifest their part of the deep and uni- 
versal sorrow. They were received in Buifalo by torchlight, 
and there, too, was enacted another sad and funereal pageant 
suited to the occasion. So at Cleveland, so at Columbus, so at 
Cincinnati, and so on the whole line of travel, till the cortege 
arrived at Louisville, and landed the remains of Henry Clay on 
the soil of Kentucky, his adopted State, which had ever de- 
lighted to honor him, and which, as he himself once said, had 
" carried him aloft in her noble arms, as well when fortune 
frowned as when she smiled." Though the grief of the nation 
was sincere, that of Kentucky was the sorrow of a parent for the 
loss of a son. She was entitled to the first place in the long 
procession ; and we are not surprised to see her tears flow more 
copiously, and her symbols of mourning more expressive. So 
was it at Louisville, so was it at Frankfort, the capital of the 
State, and so was it on the whole line of the railway to Lexing- 
ton, where the cortege arrived, as stated in the text, at sunset, 
on Friday, the 9th of July. 

As far as the sight could reach, there was one sea of heads. 
The mission of the Senate Committee was ended, and Mr. Un- 
derwood addressed the Chairman of the Committee of Lexing- 
ton, as follows : 



440 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

" ^Ir. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Lexington Committee : Mr. Clay 
desired to be buried in the cemetery of your city. I made known his wish 
to the Senate after he was dead. That body, in considoi'ation of the re- 
spect entertained fur him, and his long and eminent public services, ap- 
pointed a committee of six senators to attend his remains to this place. 
My relations to Mr. Clay, as his colleague, and as the mover of the reso- 
lution, induced the President of the Senate to appoint me the chairman of 
the committee. The other gentlemen comprising the committee are dis- 
tinguished, all of them, for eminent civil serxaces, each having been the 
executive head of a State or Territory, and some of them no less dis- 
tinguished for brilliant military achievements. I can not permit this occa- 
sion to pass without an expression of my gratitude to each member of the 
Senate's Committee. They have, to testify their personal respect and ap- 
preciation of the character, private and public, of Mr. Clay, left their seats 
in the Senate, for a time, and honored his remains by conducting them to 
their last resting-place. I am sure that you, gentlemen of the Lexington 
Committee, and the people of Kentucky, will ever bear my associates in 
grateful remembrance. 

" Our journey, since we left Washington, has been a continued procession. 
Everywhere the people have pressed forward to manifest their feelings to- 
ward the illustrious dead. Delegations from cities, towns, and villages, 
have waited on us. The pure and the lovely, the mothers and daughters 
of the land, as we passed, covered the coffin with garlands of flowers, and 
bedewed it with tears. It has been no triumphal procession in honor of a 
living man, stimulated by hopes of reward. It has been the voluntary 
tribute of a free and grateful people to the glorious dead. We have 
brought with us, to witness the last sad ceremony, a delegation from the 
Clay Association of the city of New York, and delegations ii-om the cities 
of Cincinnati and Dayton, in Ohio. Much as we have seen on our way, it 
is small compared with the great movement of popular sympathy and ad- 
miration which everywhere burst fortli in Iionor of the departed states- 
man. The rivulets we have witnessed are concentrating; and in their 
union will form the ocean tide that shall lave the base of the pyramid of 
Mr. Clay's fame forever. 

" Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Lexington Committee, I have but 
one remaining duty to perform, and that is, to deliver to you, the neigh- 
bors and friends of Mr. Clay, when living, his dead body for interment. 
From my acquaintance with your characters, and especially with your 
chairman, who was my schoolmate in boyhood, my associate in the legis- 
lature in early manhood, and afterward a co-laborer, for many years, on 
the bench of the Aj)pellate Court, I know that you will do all that duty 
and propriety require, in burying him, whose last great services to his 
country were performed from Christian motives, without hopes of office or 
earthly reward." 

As he closed, the chairman of the Lexington Committee, 



, OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 441 

Chief Justice Robertson, sharing the emotions of all present, and 
himself deeply affected, replied : 

" Senator Underwood, Chairman, and Associate Senators of the Com- 
mittee of Conveyance : Here, your long and mournful cortege, at last 
ends — your melanclioly mission is now fulfilled — and, this solemn mo- 
ment, you dissolve forever your official connection with your late dis- 
tinguished colleague of Kentucky. 

" With mino-led emotions of sorrow and gratitude, we receive from your 
hands, into the arms of his devoted State and the bosom of his beloved 
city, all that now remains on earth of Henry Clay. Having attained, with 
signal honor, the patriarchal age of seventy-six, and hallowed liis setting 
sun bv the crowning act of his eventful drama, a wise find benevolent 
Providence has seen fit to close his pilgrimage, and to allow him to act — 
as we trust he was prepared to act — a still nobler and better part in a 
purer world, where life is deathless. This was, doubtless, best for him, 
and, in the inscrutable dispensations of a benignant Almighty, best for his 
country. Still, it is but natural that his countrymen, and his neighbors es- 
pecially, should feel and exhibit sorrow at the loss of a citizen so useful, so 
eminent, and so loved. And not as his associates only, but as Kentuckians 
and Americans, we, of Lexington and Fayette, feel grateful for the unex- 
ampled manifestations of respect for his memory, to which you have so 
eloquently alluded, as having everywhere graced the more than triumphal 
procession of his dead body homeward from the national capital, where, in 
the public service, he fell with his armor on and untarnished. We feel, 
Mr. Chairman, especially grateful to yourself and your colleagues here 
present, for the honor of your kind accompaniment of your precious de- 
posit to his last home. Equally divided in your party names, equally the 
personal friends of the deceased, equally sympathizing with a whole nation 
in the Providential bereavement, and all distinguished for your public serv- 
ices and the confidence of constituents — you were peculiarly suited to the 
sacred trust of escorting his remains to the spot chosen by himself for 
their repose. Having performed that solemn service in a manner credit- 
able to yourselves and honorable to his memory, Kentucky thanks you for 
your patriotic magnanimity. And allow me, as her organ on this vale- 
dictory occasion, to express for her, as well as for myself and committee, 
the hope that your last days may be far distant, and thftt, come when they 
may, as they certainly must come, sooner or later, to all of you, the death 
of each of you may deserve to be honored by the grateful outpourings of 
national respect which signahze the death of our universally lamented 

Clay. 

" Unlike Burke, he never ' gave up to party what was meant for man- 
kind.' His intrepid nationality, his lofty patriotism, and his comprehensive 
philanthropv, illustrated by his eountiy's annals for half a century, mag- 
nified him among statesmen, and endeared him to all classes, and ages, and 



442 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. . 

sexes of bis countrvrnen. And, therefore, his name, hke Wasliino^on's. 
will belong to no party, or section, or time. 

"Your kind allusion, Mr. Chairman, to reminiscences of our personal 
associations is cordially reciprocated — the longer we have known, the more 
we have respected each other. Be assured that the duty you have de- 
volved on our committee shall be faithfully performed. The body you 
commit to us shall be properly inteiTed in a spot of its mother earth, 
which, as ' THE GRAVE OF Clav,' Will be more and more consecrated by 
time to the affections of mankind. 

" How ditferent, however, would have been the feelings of us all, if, in- 
stead of the pulseless, speechless, breathless Clay, now in cold and solemn 
silence before us, you had brought with you to his family and neighbors, 
the living man, in all the majesty of his transcendent moral power, as we 
once knew, and often saw and heard him. But with becoming resigna- 
tion, we bow to a dispensation which was doubtless as wise and beneficent 
as it was melancholy and inevitable. 

" To the accompanying committees from New York, Dayton, an 1 Cin- 
cinnati, we tender our profound acknowledgments for their voluntary 
sacnfice of time and comfort to honor the obsequies of our illustrious 
countryman. 

" In the sacred and august presence of the illustrious dead, were an 
eulogistic speech befitting the occasion, it could not be made bv me. / 
could not thus speak over the dead body of Henry Clay. Kentucky ex- 
pects not me, nor any other of her sons, to speak his eulogy now, if ever. 
She would leave that grateful task to other States and to other times. 
His name needs not our panegyric. The carver of his o«ti fortune, the 
founder of his own name ; with his own hands he has built his own monu- 
ment, and with his own tongue and his own pen he has stereotyped his 
autobiography. "With hopeful trust his maternal commonwealth consigns 
his fame to the justice of history and to the judgment of ages to come. 
His as'.ies he bequeathed to her, and they will rest in her bosom until the 
judgment day ; his fame will descend, as the common heritage of his coun- 
try, to every citizen of that Union, of which he was thrice the triumphant 
champion, and whose genius and value are so beautifully illustrated by his 
model life. 

" But, though we feel assured that his renown will survive the ruins of 
the Capitol he so lang and so admiiably graced, yet Kentucky will lear to 
his memory a magnificent mausoleum — a votive monument — to mark the 
spot where his relics shall sleep, and to testify to succeeding generations, 
that our Iie|)ublic, however unjust it may too often be to living meiit, will 
ever cherish a grateful remembrance of the dead patriot, who dedicated his 
life to his country, and with rare ability, heroic firmness, and self-sacrificing 
constancy, tlevoted his talents and his time to the cause of Patkiotism, of 
LiiJERTY, and of Truth." 

Tlie following somewhat glowing account of what occurrctl, 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 443 

from the arrival of the cortege at Lexington to tlie commence- 
ment of the funeral discourse, we borrow from the hand of an 
eye-witness : 

At the close of this address, the procession was formed, headed by a 
cavalcade of horsemen, preceding the hearse, which was followed by the 
Senate Committee, and the deputation from New York, in carriages, as 
mourners ; the Clay Guard, of Cincinnati ; the deputation of fourteen, 
from Dayton, Ohio ; the seventy-six, from Louisville, and the citizens in the 
rear — their march being un'ler tlie funeral arches, and througli the somber 
street — lined by the silent multitude — towai-d that place kuown to every 
inhabitant of the Republic, and throughout the civilized world, as the 
home of the great coinraoner. 

Wlio can fittingly speak of the agonized group awaiting, at Ashland, 
the arrival of the remains of him who had been husband, father, and the 
beloved master ? Tliat wife, who, for fifty-three years and upward, had 
been his faithful partner — sharer of his triumphs and of his many trials ', 
whose saint-like virtues had secured to her the affection and veneration of 
all classes in the place where she was so well known ; herself more than 
threescore years a sojourner on earth, having survived her parents and all 
her daughters, with gallant sons moldering in the tomb, bending beneath 
the weight of this, her speechless sorrow ; bowing wth years, and broken 
in health, amid surviving children, grandchildren, and kindred ; and gather- 
ing around them, the old and young of their servants, awaited there the 
remains of her husband. 

Guided by the many torches, the train moved through the grounds de- 
signed and laid out under his supervision. It was in truth a solemn — a 
holy scene. Under the dark shadows of the spreading grove, treading on 
a lawn where the wild flower, the myrtle, and the laurel were strangely 
mingled, they bore him toward that portal which had last seen him depart 
near the close of the preceding year, impelled again to cross the mount- 
ains, and to tread the Halls of Congress, because there had come to him a 
rumor of a threatened resumption of sectional controversies. * * * 

They o^ently laid him beneath his own roof, and in that room where he 
had, for half a century, received the homage of countless thousands, rep- 
resenting all classes and callings — the gifted and the great of either sex 
— comiiio' from every country, and traveling from all directions, to Lexing- 
ton, that they might thus, in person, pay tribute to the worth, the genius, 
the patriotism, and surjiassing excellence of the private and public charac- 
ter of the illustrious host. 

Beside the bier were gathered his sons, some of his grandsons, and 
nephews ; behind these the family servants. * * * 

The Clay Guard, of Cincinnati, solicited the honor of watching over 
his remains — this, the last night before sepulture. * * * 

In the deep hours of the night — alone with him and her God — the 



444 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Widow knelt beside her husband's corpse. For that hour it was directed 
that she should not be disturbed. In that hour what other heart knew 
her tlironiring nieniorics of joys and sorrows, save the spirit of the dead 
she lonjjed to join. * * * Thev had commenced top-ether the struo-rrles 
of life. TofjftlK'r they had planned their home — together they had ar- 
ranged their grounds, and with their own hands had planted the young 
shoots of what now were the stately trees of Asliland. * * * Life had 
opened to them full of the bright hope and promise that belong to youth, 
energy, and commanding abilities. She had seen him leap into a dazzling 
greatness, reflecting honor and dignity upon his native land, lifting his 
young State to the front rank of her compeers, and conferring prosperity 
upon his country and her citizens, while he gave stability and permanence 
to the institutions and laws of the land, and cemented toa-ether the Union, 
as he ardently desired, prayed for, and labored ceaselessly to accomplish, 
from end to end — from center to circumference. * ^: * There were 
born to them, in this liappy home, eleven children — six daughters and five 
sons. Where are they now ? No daughter survived, on whose breast that 
aged head could rest. Four sons only remained, and one a lunatic. * * * 

In that dread hour, through her thronging mind, passed the remem- 
brance of a life-time. She had the sympathy and regard of miUions, and 
in that watch of the dead, she was accompanied by the thoughts of count- 
less thousands, who remembered what event the moiTow was to commem- 
orate in history. * * * 

Long before the day had fairly broke (Saturday, July 10), every avenue 
of approach to the city was crowded by those who came to Lexington 
to render their last tnbute to him wlio had always, li^nng, received their 
meiisureless devotion. * * * it ^vas computed that nearly one hun- 
dred thousand persons, of all classes and both sexes, had come together on 
that memorable 0(rcasion. * * * 

At an early hour, those ai)pointed to meet at Ashland, had gathered 
together within the house : The pall-bearers, his oldest and most distin- 
guished fiiends in Kentucky, the Senate Committee, and the deputation 
from New York, with his family and kindred. In front were arranged the 
deputations from other States, from the Masonic fraternity, and a dense 
crowd were in a semicircular array before the porch. Upon a bier, 
cushioned with llowers, and immediately in front of the door, they laid the 
iron coffin that inclosed the body of Henry Clay. Upon it shone a 
clear, cloudless sun. Upon the breast of it reposed the civic wreaths, while 
strewed around were the floral oiierings of every principal place, from the 
national capital to the grave. * * * 

From Washington to the tomb was one votive offering of wreaths of 
oak, immortelles, the cypress, the ivy, and the laurel — bouquets of flowers 
o( every species, and in wondroijs profusion. It was no unfrequent sight 
to witness youth and beauty bend and press their lips upon his sable 
shroud. Old men would pause beside his iron Ciise, and burst into uncon- 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 445 

trollable sobs. Early manhood and middle age, that had banked their 
hopes in him, and clung to him as their chieftain and their leader, to the 
last moment resisting the assured certainty that they were no more to 
listen to that silver voice, nor hang upon its tones, with speechless woe at 
length realized, that for the future, his memory and the preservation of his 
patriotic principles were their future charge. 

His late colleaofues in the Senate — that revered band of chosen inti- 
mates, who were honored as his pall-bearers, the New York delegation, 
and his family and kindred, grouped near the porch and within his dwell- 
ing ; on the porch stood the minister of God, at whose hand he had re- 
ceived the sacrament, when last he was alive, within those halls — the same 
minister who had baptized him, his children that were left to him, and the 
children of his dead son, Colonel Clay — while all around the eye rested 
on his near friends and neighbors, who were there assembled, and yet 
without these, lines of people fii'om many States, and the far-off counties 
of his own.^ 

The funeral services were performed by the Rev. Edward F. 
Berkley, Rector of Christ Church, Lexington, who delivered the 
following address before the procession moved from Ashland : 

" My Friends : A nation's griefs are bursting forth at the fall of one 
of her noblest sons. 

"A mighty man in Avisdom — in intellect — in truth — lies in our presence 
to-day, insensible, inanimate and cold. The heart which once beat 
with a pure and lofty patriotism — shall beat no more. The renowned 
statesman, who was learned in the laws of diplomacy and government, will 
never ao-ain cive his counsel in affaii'S of state. And the voice which was 
ever raised in behalf of truth and liberty, is silenced forever ! 

"Indulge me in a remark or two, while I speak of liim ; and in consid- 
eration of the personal comfort of this immense assembly, my words shall 
be few. 

" This is neither a proper place nor a fit occasion to dwell on the pecu- 
liar and striking incidents of his public life ; and I mean to say a few 
words onl}' of his character as viewed in connection with ivligioii. 

" We have not come here to weave a garland of praises for the brow of 
the fallen statesman, nor to throw the incense of adulation upon the urn 
which incloses his ashes ; but we have come here to pay the last offices of 
respect and affection, to a neighbor and a friend ; and to draw, from the 
visitation wliicli has stricken down one of the mightiest of our mighty men, 
such lessons as are calculated to teach us ' what shadows we are, and what 
shadows we pursue.' 

" Our venerated friend has been before the public eye for half a century; 
and for nearly the whole of that period in the occupancy of high public 
places. He has done the State great service. He combined in his char- 
acter such elements as could make him no other man than he was. except, 
that he mijxht have been as great a soldier as he was a statesman and 



446 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAT. 

orator. But the crowning excellence of all his virtues, was this — ^he was a 
Christian. 

"As he was eminently open, candid, and honest, in his long public 
career, so was he deeply sincere in his adoption, as the rule of his life, of 
the principles of our holy religion. 

'" Altliciugli the suns of seventy summers had shone do^^'n upon him _ 
before he made a public profession of Christ, yet, when he did make it, he 
did it, not mechanically, and as a matter of course, because he was an old 
nian — he did it heartily, and upon conviction, because he felt himself to 
be a sinner, and because he felt the need of a Sanour ! And when he 
came to make the inquiry. What shall I do ? and it was told him what he 
ought to do — he did it gladly — he made haste to fulfill the purposes of 
his heart. And his great mind being brought to the investigation of the 
pure and simple doctrines of the Cross, new beauties, in a new world broke 
in upon him, of the existence of which, to their full extent, he had never 
dreamed b(4ure. And I know, that in times when he lay under the hand 
of disease, and of great bodily infirmity, here at home, he clung to those 
doctrines, by a lively faith, as the highest consolation of his soul. 

" Although he had his Church preferences, yet the power and influence 
of the teachings of Christianity, rightly understood, gave rise to sympa- 
thies in his nature, which extended to all Christian people. 

" Surrounded as he was, by the allurements and fascination of a high 
public place, nevertheless, he strove to Avalk in the pure and perfect way ; 
and by a steady maintenance of the principles which bound him to religion 
and to God — like the eagle, with his eye fixed upon the sun, his course 
was onward and upward ! 

" And these principles, which our illustrious friend found so comforting 
and consoling in life, did not forsake him when he had nothing else on 
earth to cling to. 

" In reference to some of his last hours, a lady, connected with him by 
family, who recently spent several days at his bedside, writes : ' He is long- 
ing to be gone, and said something of this kind to me, which caused me 
to ask him if ho did not feel perfectly wiling to wait until the Almighty 
called him. Ho replied, O, my dear child, do not misunderstand me — I 
sujiplicate Ilim continually fur patience to do so. I am ready to go — no, 
not ready, but wUl'uig. We are none of us ready. AVe can not trust in 
our own merits, but must look to him entirely^ 

" The writer adds : ' He is the most gentle, patient, and aflectionate sick 
person I almost ever saw — thanks you for every thing, and is as little trouble 
as he can possibly be.' 

" And this is the power of religion upon a vigorous and discriminating 
mind — a mind fully capable of meeting all the great emergencies which 
have ever arisen in its collisions with other gi-eat minds, at tlie bar, in the 
Senate, and in the fonmi. 

"And O, the recollection to mourning friends, and to a mourning country, 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 447 

is of the most consoling interest, that, as in liis life, by his genius and wis- 
dom, he threw light, and peace, and blessing u|>()ii his country, so, in his 
death, the Glorious Giver of grace and wisdom threw light, and peace, and. 
blessing upon him — borne upward, as he was, by the aspirations to heaven, 
of a luilliun hearts. 

" But his earthly career is run. Full of age and full of honors, he goes 
down to earth, to ashes, and to dust. A man of extraordinary genius ; a 
man of the highest practical wisdom — possessing the largest powers of true 
eloquence — a ])ure patriot, a sincere Christian, and a friend of his race. 

"His friends will gi-ieve for him — the Church has lost him — his countiy 
will bewail him — and hereafter, when the passing traveler shall come to 
Ashland, and look for the bland, agreeable, and hospitable host, he loill not 
find him here ! His aged wife, who, for more than fifty years, has grieved 
with him in his sorrows, and rejoiced with him in his public success, shall 
go down unto the grave, mourning ; and men in every civilized nation- of 
the earth will shed a tear at the fall of such a man. But he is gone to a 
brighter and a better world ; while this memorial shall remain of him 
here, that he was as simple and sincere in his religion, as he was great in 
wisdom and mighty in intellect, 

" God is no respecter of persons. Neither genius, nor Avisdom, nor power, 
nor greatness can avert the fatal darts which fly thick and fast around us. 
If public services of the highest value, a fair fame which reaches to the 
utmost habitations of civilized man, and an integrity as stern as steel, could 
have done this, a nation had not been in tears to-day. 

" But the great and the humble — the useful and the useless — the learned 
and the ignorant — the mighty and the mean — the public and the private 
man — must all, alike, lie down in the cold chambers of the grave ! Death 
is the common leveler of men and of nations. Temples and monuments, 
which have been erected to perpetuate the achievements of statesmen and 
of heroes in past ages, have been ruined and robbed of their grandeur by 
the insatiable tooth of time — not a vestige remains of the glory that once 
covered the earth, and not a stone to mark the spot where the master of 
the world was laid. 

" And this is the end of man 1 This the obscurity and oblinon to which 
he shall come at last ! But his end may be worse than this, if he has no 
hope in the blessed Saviour's death. For, whoever confides in the world 
for the bestowment of true happiness — whoever trusts to its gains, its 
pleasures, or its honors, to bring him peace at the last — will find himself 
miserably imposed upon, and grievously deluded. lie will liu I tliat this 
misplaced confidence will involve him in ruin, as inevitable as it will be 
eternal ! 

" ' Lean not on cartli ! 'twill pierce tlieo to the heart ; — 
A broken reed at best, but oft a spear ! 
On its sharp point, peace bleeds and hope expires.' 

" If we aspire to a true, a deathless, immortality, let us not seek it in the 



448 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

praises of men, or in the enrollment of our name upon the paQ;e of history ; 
for these all shall perish ! But let us seek, by obedience to God, and a 
recognition of the claims of religion, to have our names written in the 
Lamb's Book of Life. This, and this only, will guaranty an immortality 
as imperishable as the heavens, and as certain as the Life of God. 

" The observation is almost universal, that ' all men think all men mortal 
but themselves.' And yet there is nothing more surely reserved for us in 
the future than disease and dissolution. And these, too, may, and very 
often do, come when we ai'c least expecting a disturbance of our plans. 

" The statesman falls with plans of future glory yet unaccomplished ; 
the poet expires in the midst of his song, and the magic of his muse lin- 
gers on his dying lips ; the sculptor drops his chisel before he has taught 
the marble to breathe — and the painter his pencil, while the living figures 
on his canvas are yet unfinished ; tlie sword slips from the hand of the 
warrior before the battle is won ; and the orator is silenced while the words 
of wisdom are yet dropping in sweetest accents from his lips. 

" ' I said. Ye are gods, and children of the ^Most High, but ye shall die 
like men.' 

" No consideration can purchase a moment's respite, when the decree 
shall go forth, ' This night thy soul shall be required of thee !' whether it be 
uttered at the doors of the stately mansion, or at the cot of the lowly pooi*. 
And not to be wisely and well prepared to hear this summons is destructive 
of the best interests of the soul. Uappy they who have made a friend in 
God. Happy they who have done, and they who do, this in early life — 
the failinof of which, in his case, our revered friend so often himself re- 
gretted — thrice happy they in whom greatness and goodness meet together. 
Imperishable joys shall be awarded to them. They shall shine as stars in 
the firmament forever and ever. In each successive generation their ' mem- 
ory shall be blessed,' and their ' name be had in everlasting remembrance ;' 
and, ' their conflicts o'er, their labors done,' the ransomed spirit shall escape 
from the prison that confines it to the earth, and the King of kings shall 
bind upon their victorious brow wreaths of unfading glory, in that blessed 
place, 

" ' "Where pain, and weariness, and sorrow cease, 
And cloudless sunshine fills the land of peace.' 

" Our groat friend and countryman is dead ! He has no more connection 
with the livinir world, and we are about to bear his honored remains to the 
beautiful spot where our own d^'ad lie, and around which our memories 
love to linger. "What to him, I ask you, are now the policy or the politics 
of the country ? What to him, now, are the nice points upon which turns 
the honor of the State ? What to him, now, is the extension of empire ? — 
the rise or fall of nations ? — the dethronement or the establishment of 
kings ?. His work is done, and well done. As it is with him, so shall it 
shortly be with every one of us. Then, 



REMARKS. 449 

" ' So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To tlie pale realms of shade where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death — 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.' 

" One word moro. The distinguished subject of oui- present attention 
has follen a martyr to his country. The cause of his sickness and his death 
originated in his last great efforts in securing the passage, through Con- 
gress, of certain measures, known as The Compromise. In more seness 
than one may he receive tlie heavenly welcome, ' Well done, good and 
foithful servant.' Ilis love of country — his enthusiasm in any cause in 
which her interests were involved — his great and singular powers — his 
wonderful and controlling influence over even great minds, marked him as 
the man of the age, and adapted him, in a peculiar manner, to act and 
to lead in grave matters of government. 

" And if, in the future, any one section of this great Republic should be 
arrayed in hostility against another ; and any cruel hand shall be uplifted 
to sever the bonds which unite us together as a common people — the 
Genius of Liberty shall come down in anguish and in tears, and throwing 
herself prostrate before his tomb, implore the Mighty Ruler of nations — for 
the preservation of our institutions, and the protection of our liberty and 
(if our I'nion — to raise up from his ashes, another Cl.vy." 

The marshals of the day then formed the long procession, 
which moved from Ashland, through Lexington, to the cemetery 
at the north of the city, where were deposited the remains of 
Henry Clay, to rest till the morning of the resurrection. 

It is suitable that some sentiment — and not a little— should he, 
manifested in the community, at the exit from the world of so 
remarkable a man as Henry Clay. It is not every country nor 
every age that can boast of such a character. Great men there 
have been in this country and in others, besides Mr. Clay ; but 
every man has his own peculiar mold. The mold of Mr. Clay's 
character was perfectly peculiar. Wc do not remember to have 
seen or read of any thing like it in all history. It was both 
plastic and elastic — plastic as being susceptible of influence by 
every touch of the world around, and elastic as having internal 
springs which responded to every touch from without. And 
there was a basis of goodness, wiiich was very sure to make 
those springs act in a right direction. But for this basis, the 

29 



450 ■ REMARKS. 

Other two attributes which we have named might be productive 
of the most pernicious resuUs — might even be diaboHcal. These 
elements — the last and first two — are the triune constitution of 
character ; but a healthy morale is the most important of the 
three. Doubtless, i\Ir. Clay had his sportive or impulsive springs 
of character, which bounded into acts, in his childhood, in 
his youth, and in his riper years, for which he might be 
sorry, and which, perhaps, would sometimes give pain to others. 
But the deep and strong power of natural goodness would restore 
him to its corrective influence. This goodness, lying at the 
bottom of a man's heart, prompting its impulses, controlling his 
conduct, and imparting its character to his deportment, was strik- 
ingly exemplified in Mr. Clay. It is a basis of character which 
has many important bearings, and produces important results. 
If a man is sympathetic, it proceeds from this : and sympathy 
branches out into innumerable forms, according to the nature of 
the object by which it is challenged. It may be pity for those 
in want or distress; it may be love of kindred, or love of coun- 
try; it may be exhilaration with the joyful, or hilarity with tlie 
mirthful ; it responds, in short, to all possible relations of the so- 
cial state. It mounts even higher, spreads out into a larger 
sphere, when the heart is touched by the grace of God ; for then 
it expands to a sympathy with a kingdom which is not of this 
world, and embraces not only all on earth, but all in heaven, 
and allies itself to Him who sits upon the throne of heaven. 
We have had evidence that ]Mr. Clay, especially in the latter 
years of his life, felt the power of this more holy sympathy, and 
enjoyed its higher and holier satisfactions. 

But the distinguishing characteristic by which he has been 
longest and best known, and which has procured for him an 
ever-during fame, was his love of country, and his sympathy 
with those rights of man which are most essential to the perfec- 
tion of the social state in its organized forms. In this wide and 
deep current flowed the great body of his afleclions, till they 
swept over the land of his birth, and reached all of human kind, 
far and near, civilized and barbarian. He wa.<? a Philanthropist 
in the highest, purest, and most comprehensive sense of the 
term ; and, to crown all, he was a Christian. 



NOTE G— Page 292. 



A LETTER FROM MR. CLAY ON DUELINa. 

"Ashland, August 1, 1844. 

"Gentlemen : I duly received your letter of the loth instant, on the 
subject of dueling-, and I appreciate fully the friendly, pious, and patriotic 
motives which prompted you to address it to me. Pernicious as the 
practice undoubtedly is, I hope you will excuse me when I say there are 
other questions, in our public affairs, of much higher and more general 
importance. The victims or votaries of that practice are but few in num- 
ber, and bear no comparison with the immense number of sufferers from 
the rejection of Avise measures of national policy, or the adoption of those 
of an opposite character. 

"I expressed in strong terms of condemnation my opinion against duel- 
ing, in a letter which I addressed to my constituents, in March, 1824, 
which is to be found in the published collection of my speeches. Again, 
within a few years past, I gave evidence of my strong disapprobation of it, 
by voting, in the Senate of the United States, for the bill to suppress duel- 
inof in the District of Columbia. 

" "With these proofs of my sentiments, I think, gentlemen, you ought 
to be satisfied. But you ask me, whether, if I were challenged to fight a 
duel, I would reject the invitation ? Considering my age, which is now 
past sixty-seven, I feel that I should expose myself to lidicule, if I were to 
proclaim whether I would or would not fight a duel. It is certainly one 
of the most unlikely events that can possibly be imagined, and I can not 
conceive a case in which I should be provoked or tempted to go to the 
field of combat. But as I can not foresee all the contingencies which may 
possibly arise in the short remnant of my life, and for the reason which I 
have already stated, of avoiding any exposure of myself to ridicule, I can 
not reconcile it to my sense of propriety to make a declaration one way or 
the other. 

"You have, gentlemen, done me some, but not full justice, in respect to 
the afiair of the lamented Cilley. When I first obtained any knowledge 
of his difficuhy with Mr. Graves, I did not then thiidv there was the small- 
est occasica fur a combat between them. I believed, from the first, that 
the matter would be amicably accommodated ; and to that end all my ex- 



452 A LETTER FROM MR. CLAY ON DUELIXG, 

ertions were directed. I did not know that it was not accommodated 
until the day when, and after the parties went out to fight. On that day I 
was confined to my room by illness, and it was altogether accidental that I 
obtained information that the parties had gone out. But I was neither in- 
formed as to the place or the hour of their meeting. Contrary to the im- 
pressions which you entertain, I did advise the employment of the police 
to arrest the parties, and to prevent the duel. The constables accordingly 
went out in search of them, but like myself, being ignorant of the time 
and place of their meeting, they mistook the route, and failed in the ac- 
complishment of the object. If you would read attentively the whole of 
my correspondence with Mr. Wise, to which you have referred, you will 
find that it sustains the preceding statement. 

" I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your friend and obedient servant, 

" H. Clay. 

" Messrs. Alex. Plumer, and others." 



NOTE H— Page 293. 



When the death of Mr. Calhoun was announced in the Senate 
of the United States, April 1st, 1850, Mr. Clay seconded the re- 
solutions of order for the funeral, which were offered by Mr. 
Butler, the colleague of Mr. Calhoun. We can not refrain from 
an extract from Mr. Clay's remarks on that occasion, considering 
what had been the relations of these two eminent men to each 
other for over thirty years, most of which time they had been 
political opponents, and sometimes, in the heat of public debate, 
not a little excited — disturbed, we might say — in their personal 
feelings. But they always had respect for each other, and were 
courteous. 

* * * " My personal acquaintance with him" [Mr. Calhoun], said 
Mr. Clay, " commenced upward of thirty years ago. We entered at the 
same time the House of Representatives at the other end of this building. 
* * * Such, Mr. President, was the high estimate I formed of his tran- 
scendent talents, that, if at the end of his sernce in the executive depart- 
ment under Mr. Monroe, he had been called to the higliest office in the 
government, I should have felt perfectly assured that, under his auspices, the 
honor, the prosperity, and the glory of our country would have been safely 
placed. 

" But, sir, he is gone ! No more shall we witness from yonder seat the 
flashes of that keen and penetrating eye, darting through this chamber. 
No more shall we Avitness that torrent of clear, concise, and compact logic, 
poured out from his lips, which, if it did not always carry conviction to 
our judgment, commanded our great admiration. Those eyes and those 
lips are closed forever t * * * 

" He possessed a genius of the highest order. In felicity of general- 
ization of the subject of which his mind treated, I have seen him surpassed 
bv no one, and the charm and captivating influence of his colloquial pow- 
ers have been felt by all who have conversed with him. 1 was his senior, 
Mr. President, in years — in nothing else. According to the course of 
nature, I ought to have preceded him. It has been decreed otherwise. I 



454 DEATH OF MR. CALHOUN. 

know that I shall linger here only a short time, and shall soon follow 
him. 

" And how brief, how short is the period allotted even to the youngest 
among us ! Sir, ought we not to profit by the contemplation of this 
melancholy occasion ? Ought we not to draw from it the conclusion how 
unwise it is to indulge in the acerbity of unbridled debate ? How unbe- 
coming, if not presumptuous, in us who are the tenants of an hour in this 
earthly abode, to wrestle and struggle together with a violence which 
•would not be justifiable even if it we^ our perpetual home. * * * J 
trust we shall all be instructed by the eminent virtues and merits of his ex- 
alted character, and be taught by his bright example to fulfill our great 
public duties by the lights of our ow^n judgment and by the dictates of 
our own concsiences, as he did, according to his honest and best concep- 
tions of those duties, faithfully and to the last." 



CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY CLAY. 

1843 TO 1851. 

"WITH COLLATERAL LETTERS AND NOTES. 
EDITED BY THOMAS B. STEVENSOX.* • 



PREFACE. 



Of the papers composing this collection, two, only, were prepared for the 
public eye. One of these was published in a widely circulated newspaper in 
1848, and copied by other prints ; but the other was suppressed in the publish- 
ing office to which the writer intrusted its introduction to the public. Of the 
residue of letters, direct and collateral, none were written with a view to publi- 
cation, and none have been hitherto pubHshed. 

Intended only for private information, it may be deemed due to propriety to 
justify this public use of them. The justification is, that it is believed tliey will 
prove interesting, instructive, useful, and acceptable to the public ; while their 
publication will neither violate confidence, nor weaken the guaranties which 
guard and protect the sacred sanctity of private epistolary intercourse. They 
have been winnowed with affectionate care, the omitted paragraplis being sub- 
stituted by asterisks. The omitted matter, however, for the most part, related 
to current or transient events, to business, and to men and things, invested with 
no permanent public interest, and therefore, in my judgment, proper to be ex- 
cised. And it may be added, as an admirable characteristic of Mr. Clay's cor- 
respondence, that while it was free and frank, uniting the charms of freshness, 
ease, and sincerity, it was at the same time a model of propriety and decorum. 
In his most intimate communings, when the inner man Avas brought out, he in- 
dulged none of those ungentle expressions and angry vituperations which make 
men of taste recoil at their publication. He displayed a calm composure, the 
out-growth of a repose of soul, which enabled him to subdue the bursts of 
malignant passion ; and he encountered the provoking scenes of life and the ex- 

* The remainder of this volume is a contribution from Thomas B. Stevenson, Esq., 
of Maj-sville, Kentucky, who, as the correspondence will show, was admitted to inti- 
mate and confidential relations with Mr. Clay, and for several years had much inter- 
course with him, by letter and otherwise. 



456 PREFACE. 

asperating conduct of men, in a spirit of moderation and forbearance, that re- 
flected dignity on human nature. Of this, abundant proofs will be found in the 
following letters; and not one of the suppressed passages, disfigured by any un- 
dignifying blemish, would reveal aught to the contrary. 

The least important of these letters are not without a certain degree of public 
interest; while many of them are more valuable for the intimations and argu- 
mentative statements of opinions on important topics, on some of which, it is 
behoved, he was never required, in the performance of official duties, pubhcly to 
express himself And it has long been conceded, tliat such expressions, made 
in the sincerity of familiar and trusted intercourse, are of the most instructive 
and reliable elements of which the fabrics of authentic history may be con- 
structed. 

The pubhcation of the letters, direct and collateral, relating to the competition 
for the Presidency in 1848, and more especially regarding his attitude toward 
Ohio, with the notes appended, is believed to be due as a justification of Mr. 
Clay's motives and conduct, with respect to which he felt more than his usual, 
though no less than a natural and noble-minded keenness of sensibihty ; and, 
moreover, it is not doubted that while it will prove instructive to the public, 
it will also subserve the ends of pohtical justice, and promote a spirit of obe- 
dience to the invocations of pohtical wisdom and political honesty, in supporting 
the integrity of political principle. 

These considerations alone, without the incentive of injunctions, obedience to 
■which was but a sacred duty, have induced and now serve to justify this publi- 
cation, and in a form which the editor deems most appropriate to the vindication 
of historical truth. 

The incorporation in this collection of a series of cotemporary letters, witli 
explanatory notes, relating to Mr. Clay's attitude toward Kentcky, in the same 
meinoralde and lamentable contest of 1848, has been considered; but it is hoped 
such a contribution to the truth of history and the ends of justice, will be made 
by some one, then a resident and actor in Kentucky, more competent, if not more 
willing, to execute the task. 

The illustration of a signal, even though brief, period in the long and illus- 
trious pubhc career of one — the music of Avhose sonorous eloquence, startling 
the panting sons of liberty with hope and courage from Olympus to the Andes, 
is still heard ringing and reverberating in every clime of freedom, the splendor 
of wliose many mighty deeds, the practical beneficence of whose wise policy, 
the vital energy of whose undying principles, and the colossal grandeur of whose 
unexasfferated character, have consecrated his name innnort;d — would be but 
worthy homage to blended goodness and greatness, from one of his admiring 
and grati'fiil countrymen, who feels a just pride and an honest exultation that 
the giury and strength of our blessed Union are inseparably linked with the im- 
perishable fame of Henry Clay. 

T. B. S. 

Maysvili.e, Kentucky, February 4, 1856. 



CORllESPONDENCE OF IIENKY CLAY, 



LETTEJl I. 



MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON, 

Ashland, July 19, 1843. 

Mr Dear Sir — The news from Louisiana is Ijad enouiili. Fi'om Ten- 
nessee I daily receive the most satisfoctory and choerini;- accounts. I agree 
with you, that on the result of that election nmcli of the future depends. 
From Pennsylvania, from Georgia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, I 
get good accounts. 

An editorial article will appear to-day in the Observer, on l^uruet's letter, 
which may be worth copying in the Commonwealth.* 

I think we shall not do as badly in Fayette as you appr(;hend. 

With cordial regard, etc. 



LETl^ER II. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

AsiiLAND, August 29, 1843. 

My Dear Sir — I received your favor, but I have not yet seen in the 
Journal the article to which you refer. I am surprised that it should 
have excited disagreeable feelings in Mr. Crittenden. The use of his name 
in connection with the office of governor \\as founded upon his great and 
just popularity, and certainly ought to excite any other feeling's than those 
of dissatisfaction, lie has only to emphatically say Xo, and I suppose he 
would not be further urged.f 

I sincerely hoj)e that a good selection of a candidate may be made ; but 
whether it be Mr. Owsley, or any other, 1 think that a new election of Del- 

* The lion. Jacob Burnet, of Ohio, had pubhshed a letter iu the Cincinnati Gazette, 
saying that while ho and Judge McLean would vote for Mr. Claj", the Abolitionists 
would vote for no resideut of a slave State, which was probably meant as a slant to 
favor Judge McLean's presidential aspirations. The article in the Observer and Re- 
porter, a newspaper at Lexington, which he sometimes wrote Observer, and sometimes 
Reporter, dctincd the true groinids of selecting the candidate to be such as regarded 
sound national principles, without reference to his residence, etc. The Commonwealth 
newspaper, published at Frankfort, was then edited by mc. — T. B. S. 

f Mr. Crittenden was extremely averse at that time to being elected governor. — 
T. B. S. 



458 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

egates in October is a desirable proceeding. Without prompt and general 
concurrence, however, in that course, it can not succeed. 

My letters from the eastward continue to breathe a good spiiit and great 
confidence. I do not think that our provokingly bad luck in Kentucky has 
produced as much discouragement as we feared. 

As I expect to see you next week in Frankfort, I must reserve for that 
occasion further communications. Meantime, I am. 

Truly yours. 



LETTER III. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Ashland, July 18, 1844. 

My Dear Sir — I received your fivor of the 13th inst., with its inclosure. 
I have sent a slip from the Batj State Democrat to Mr. Brownlow, the 
source of the information respecting Mr. Webster, published in that paper, 
and requested him to correct the error.* It will be better that the cor- 
rection and the error should have a common origin. If he fail or decline 
to do it, I will adopt some other suitable mode to have it rectified. 

I am inclined to think that you gentlemen of the press do not lash Butler f 
suflScicntlv for his silence, for near thirtv vears, in reirard to the slander of 
the Kentucky troops. During all that time he has been zealously sup[iort- 
ing the slanderer — supporting all his violent measures — supporting his 
lieutenant, Martin Van ]-luren ; and he is now supporting his other lieu- 
tenant, James K. Polk. During all that time, also, he has been opposing 
the measures of public policy, which a majority of the people of Kentucky 
desired, and opposing me. Now, after the lapse of near thirty years of 
silence on his part, he comes out and says, for the first time, that he did 
not approve of the slander upon the Kentucky troops. lie says this when, 
for the first time, he is appealing to the people of Kentucky for their suf- 
frages. Why has he been so long silent ? Why has he always supported 
the slanderer of every thing that is Kentuckian ? And what is the differ- 
ence between concurring in the slander and indorsing the slanderer? Wo 
should have a pretty time of it with one of Jackson's lieutenants at Wash- 
inixton and another at Fiankfoit, and the old man in his dotasre at the 
llermitiige dictating to both. 

I am, faithfully, your friend and obedient servant. 

• A statement imputing to Mr. Clay the use of indecorous language with respect 
to Mr. Webster.— T. B. S. 

\ ColoiR'l (afterward, in the ilexioan war, General) William 0. Butler, then the 
Democratic candidate f>r Governor of Kentucky; and, in 1848. the Democratic nom- 
inee for the Vice Presidencj', on the ticket which presented General Cass for the 
Presidency. But before the date of Mr. Clay's letter, the press had already forced 
Butler to disclaina the slanders. Sco C. S. Morehead's letter to me in the Common- 
weaith.—T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 459 



LETTER IV. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Ashland, August 12, 1845. 

My Dear Sir — I received your letter informing me that a new and 
revised edition is about to be publisiied of Dr. Bascom's pauij)blet in respect 
to the divisions which liave unhappily arisen in the Metluxiist Church. I 
perused a copy of the first edition with very great satisfaction, and consider 
it as distinguished by uncommon ability. Besides the particular questions 
involved in the controvesy between the Southern and Northern sections of 
the Methodist Church, it treats of other subjects (slavery and abolition) in 
a masterly maimer, and well adapted to make a deep and lasting impression 
upon all patriotic and religious minds open to the reception of great and 
important truths. The intention of Dr. liascom to divide the principal 
topics of the work into suitable chapters, will be an agreeable focility to 
the reader of it. 

An unwarrantable interpretation has been given to a letter which I ad- 
dressed several months ago to Dr. Boothe, in regard to the menaced sepa- 
ration of the Methodist Clmrch. It was my purpose, in that letter, to 
confine myself strictly to an expression of my great regret of the conse- 
quences to the Church and to the Union which I apprehended from the 
separation, without intimating any opinion whatever as to Avhich of the two 
parties to the controversy was in the wrong. I understand that my letter 
has been construed to imply that I thought the Southern division of the 
Church in error, which is certainly not the opinion that I do really en- 
tertain. * 

My profound regrets on account of the division of the Church, for the 
cause avhich brought it about, remain undiminished. I know that there 
are very hiixli authorities* for cherishinof the belief that the event will add 
strength, instead of creating danger to our political Union. I anxiously 
hope that experience will demonstrate the correctness of that, and the fal- 
lacy of my opinion. 

I am, respectfully, your friend and obedient servant. 



LETTER V. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

" New Orleans, December 19, 1846. 
My Dear Sir — I received your letter of the 10th instant, in respect 
to the approaching senatorial election in Kentucky. The subject has oc- 
casioned me some concern, not to say vexation. 

* See Report to the Convention of Southern Methodist Ministers, held in Louis- 
ville in the summer of 1845. — T. B. S. 



460 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

I took a formal and final leave of the Senate more than four years ago. 
I not only have no desire, but I entertain a positive disinclination, to return 
to it. I have given no authority nor countenance to the use of my name 
as a candidate. I could not reappear, as a member of the Senate, without 
at loa'^t an apparent inconsistency ; and I can not conceive a state of things 
in wliich I would consent to go back. 

My wish is, that an election should be made from among the avowed 
candidates for the office ; and although I regard them all as able and com- 
petent to serve the State with credit and fidelity, and all as my friends. If 
I had myself the election in my own hands, I should give my suffrage to 
one of them. I need not, nor would it be proper to, indicate which.* 

I have not said that, if elected, I would not serve, because such a prior 
declaration, in advance of an election, seetned to me unbecomius: and in- 
delicate ; but if my anxious desire is regarded, and if my feelings and in- 
terests are at all consulted, the attention of the General Assembly will be 
wholly withdrawn from me, and concentrated upon some other person. 

To this efiect, in substance, previous to the receipt of your letter, I 
wrote to General Combs and James Harlan, Esq. 

AVe have no news here, except the arrival yesterday of General Scott, 
en route to Mexico. 

I am your friend and obedient servant. 



LETTER VI. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSOX. 

ASULAXD, July 23, 1847. 

My Drar Sir — I have to trouble you with a little friendly commis- 
sion, which, I am sure, you will take pleasure in executing. 

Captain G. AV. Cutter, of Covington, was among the persons who last 
spoke to your departed friend, my lamented son,f and received from him a 
brace of pistols, wliirh lie has safely delivered to me. 

I desire to present to him some memorial, which, I have concluded, 
shall be a ring, containing some hair of my beloved son. I have not been 
able to procure one at the jewelers' sh(>]>s in Lexington. May I ask, there- 
fore, the favor of you to get one at Cincinnati (at a cost of some fifteen or 
twenty dollars), to have the inclosed hair or a part of it placed in it, and 
present it to the captain on my behalf? 

* Many desired (and the friends of some candidates feared) that Mr. Clay would 
return to the Senate. He repelled all overtures on the subject. After an animated 
and protracted competition between the friends of Judge Underwood, Governor 
Letcher, and ( iovernor Metcalfe, tlie former was chosen. — T. B. S. 

I Licutpnatit-Colonel Henry Clay, jr., who fell gloriously in the battle of Buena 
Vista, Kobruary 22, 1847. Tho commission intrusted to me was executed satisfac- 
torily to all parties. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 461 

I o;o hence to-morrow to the White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, and 
will, on my return, pay the cost of the ring when you infonn me of it. 

1 write in haste, but ever with assurances of tlie faithful regard and 
esteem of Your friend. 



LETTER VII. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

ASHLAXD, December 2, 1847. 

Mr Dear Sir — An absence of a week at Louisville has delayed my 
acknowledgment of the receipt of your favor of the 2 2d ult. 

I am greatly obliged by the letter of Mr. Noble, which you inclosed. 
It is full of good sense and good feeling. 

As to myself and the future, if there be not such demonstrations as I 
ought to respect, I may be compelled to decline any use of my name. 
Perhaps that is really best for the country and for me. I am most unwill- 
ing to be thought to desire a nomination for the Presidency. If better can 
be done without my name than with it, for God's sake, let me be passed 
by. But if I am to be used, I desire that I may be brought forward under 
the most auspicious circumstances. 

******** 

I write hastily. My letters, in respect to my late speech,* almost over- 
whelm me. Your friend. 



LETTER VIIL 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

[Private.) 

WASniNGTON, February 19, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — 

******** 

Nevertheless, I maintain my passive position ; neither, for the present, 
consenting to nor refusing the use of my name, etc. 

On reaching home in March, and after a careful survey of the whole 
ground of my duty to our countiy, to our principles, and to myself, I may 
finally decide. 

I am afraid Congress will do nothing to end the war. Its moral cour- 
age has increased since the commencement of the session, but, I apprehend, 
has not reached the poiut of decision and dotiiiitive action. 

On all these matters, however, you are better advised by other friends. 

On business of a private nature I go to Philadelphia next week, and 

hope to reach home by or before the 2oth March. 

Your friend. 

» His speech at Lexington, November 13, 1847, against the Mexican "War. — 
T. B. S. 



462 CORRESPONDENCE OF 



LETTER IX. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

{^Confidential.) 

ASHLAJO), April 12, 1848. 

Mr Dear Sir — Fatigued with writing ten or a dozen letters this afler- 
noou, I have got my son John to act as my amanuensis in acknowledging 
tiie receipt of your favor of the eighth instant. 

You will have seen, before this reaches you, that I have published a 
note in the Observer and Reporter expressing my willingness to have my 
name submitted to the consideration of the Whig Convention in June. 
I have made in that note a full and candid exposition of the motives which 
governed me, and I have nothing to add to it. Having taken this ground, 
I mean henceforward to abstain from writing any political letters for pub- 
lication, whatever the consequences may be. I have adopted this resolu- 
tion, not from any desire to conceal my opinions, but from a perfect con- 
viction, derived from sad experience, that all such letters, from perversion 
or misrepresentation, do more harm than good. It is the less necessary 
that I should write any letters, because my opinions, upon all subjects, 
have been plainly expressed, or are to be plainly inferred from my pub- 
lic acts and public speeches. This course, I am sure, \\\\\ meet the gen- 
eral approbation of my fi-iends, for many of them have beseeched me 
most anxiously to adopt it. I hope I may meet with you in the course of 
the spring or summer, in which case I think I can satisfy you of its cor- 
rectness. 

I received and have answered the letter of Gov. Bebb ;* and I also re- 
ceived, and will, to-morrow, answer the letter from Mr. Forrer.f 

I never for a moment entertained the opinion that I could be elected, 
if elected at all, without the concurrence of any of the slave States. If I 
should be the candidate, my opinion is that I would obtain the votes of 
Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland ; and there is a fair 
prospect of Louisiana and Florida. Assuming, what I think may bo fairly 
done, that I should obtain the votes of all the States which gave me their 
suftrages before, and that of New York, of which I entertain no doubt, 
there would be still a deficiency of some five or six votes. These, if ob- 
tained at all, must be derived from Pennsylvania, Indiana, Georgia, Louisi- 
ana, and Florida, and perhaps Michigan. 

In Massachusetts, or rather in Boston, there is an unsatisfactory state 
of things. Some of our friends there have been tickled with the featlier 
of the Vice Presidency, ami hence a Taylor clique has been formed in 
that city. But according to my information, it does not extend much be- 
yond its limits. 

* WiUiam Bcbb. tlio Governor of Ohio. — See his loiter, No. xviii. — T. B. S. 
■f Samuel Forror, of Paytou, a poiitlcmau of liijjh official and personal distinction, 
and who, nulike Bebb, proved true and constant. — See his letter, No. xix. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 463 

I have just heard that tlic Whigs of the New York Legislature, with 
only some five or six dissentients, have nominated me for the Presidency. 
Letcher was here last night, and is very well. 

I am, truly, your friend. 



LETTER X. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEyENSON. 

[Private.) 

Ashland, May 20, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — After putting a letter for you in the post-office to-<lay, 
I received your two favors of the 18th, but not the call for the People's 
Convention, in the Herald, to which you refer. I regard it only as an 
evidence of an unsettled, uneasy, and dissatisfied condition of the i)uljlio 
mind. Any such movement can not become sufficiently general to in- 
fluence materially the Convention at Philadelphia. 

Some of your communications (which I shall regard as strictly con- 
fidential) greatly surprise me. Whatever I might do, if I had not con- 
sented to submit my name to the Convention, I am constrained now to 
abide by that act. I am inclined to believe, or rather to hope, that things 
will appear not quite so bad when it assembles. So much depends on its 
complexion, so much upon developments during its deliberations, and so 
much upon the Baltimore Convention* and its nomination, that it is very 
ditficult to provide beforehand for all contingencies. I shall have a long 
interview with Harlan before he goes. I shall deeply regret if you can 
not go ; and sincerely hope that you may yet be able to do so.f 

If there should be a time when it may be necessary for me to ex- 
press any opinion about the Wilmot Proviso, for publication, that time 

has not yet arrived. 

Your friend. 



LETTER XL 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Ashland, Judo 14, 1848. 
Mv Dear Sir — I hasten to express my deep regret with all the contents 
of your favor of the 12th which relate to yourself. I had previously seen 
the annunciaton of your retirement from the Atlas^l but I Avas uninformed 

« Tlio Democratic National Convention, which soon after nominated General Cass 
for the Presidency.— T. B. S. 

\ Uncontrollable circumstances precluded my attendance. I was only an alternate 
delegate, and ray principal attended. — T. B. S. 

X The Cincinnati Daily Alias, a newspaper edited by me.— T. B. S. 



■iG4 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

of the causes. Tliese inspire me, if possible, with more respect than ever, 
for your independence, the purity of your principles, and your character. 

Are you ri<,'ht in thinking of returning from Cincinnati to Frankfort ? 
In that great and growing city, what may you not do ? in the latter, what 
can you ? You have abilities for eminent success at the bar ; why not 
turn your attention to it ? 

Wherever you may be, or whatever you may do, you have my best 
wishes, and an anxious desire to serve you in any way in my power. 

The less said, the better, about the result of the late Whig Convention 
at Philadelphia. I believe that I can bear it with much less regret than 
my warm-hearted friends. Whatever I do feel is principally on their ac- 
count, and on account of the principles which were at issue, and which have 
been so little regarded. I have not lost one hour's sleep, nor one meal of 
victuals. Accustomed as I have been to disappointments, and to afflictions? 
they disturb now, less than ever, my composure. I hope that I derive 
some support from a resignation to the will of the great Disposer of all 
events. 

There is one topic connected with the late Convention, in regard to which 
I feel a little curiosity, and that is the unexpected course of the Ohio dele- 
gation. Among the considerations which determined me to consent to 
submit my name to the Convention, one of the most powerful arose from 
assurances which I received, in every form, and from the highest sources, 
(the Governor* among them,) that I would receive the support of Ohio. 
Clay and Corwin, and Corwin and Clay, were said to be identical, and all 
the delegates, chosen for the one or the other, making together a large 
majority, were to go for me, if he were to decline, as he did. Can you tell 
me, my dear sir, after all these strong assurances, how it was that I got but 
one vote in the delegation ? I was told, too, that Ohio could not possibly 
go for General Taylor. And yet those who probably had it in their power 
to secure the nomination of a candidate whom they could carry their State 
for, suffered one to be nominated for whom, agreeably to the representations 
made to me, there was no possibility of Ohio going. 

My curiosity on this subject is rather of the historical kind ; for I have 
no complaints nor reproaches to make. My only regret is that I should 
have been led into error. Most certixinly, if I had anticipated such a vote 
as has been actually given by the Ohio delegation, I never would have 
consented that my name should be presented to the Convention. 

I observe what you say as to objects which should engage the attention 
of my future life. I shall give to those subjects full consideration, with an 
anxious wish that the remnant of my days may be so employed as to just- 
ify the confidence and friendship with which I have been so greatly and 
so long honored. 

Reciprocating all your kind feelings and friendly prayere and wishes, I 
remain faithfully yours. 

* Governor Bcbb.— T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 465 



LErrER xir. 

THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO MR. CLAY.* 

Cincinnati, June 19, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — Your precious favor of the 14th was duly received ; and 

I thank you sincerely for the kind interest you manifest iu my personal 

welfare. 

******* 

I am lilled with pride in contemplating the lofty and self-poised position 
in which you stand respecting the result of the late Whig National Con- 
vention at Philadelphia. And, like you, I regret the result more on account 
of the principles involved, and which were so shamefully disregarded, in 
the search for that new-fangled thing which, in the brainless cant of the 
day, is flippantly termed " availabiUty,^'' than on your own ; for though I 
loved you as a man, and revered you for those great statesman-like qualities 
which have attracted to you the admiration of the world, I desired to see 
you in tlie Presidential chair, not merely for the sake of doing appropriate 
honor to you, but more, far more, for the sake of the country. As for you, 
the past is secure, and office could add little, if any thing, to your solid 
fame. You can rise proudly aloft, far out of reach of the efiect even of 
the ingratitude of your late political friends ; but the Whig party, I fear, 
never can recover from the evil influence of the monstrous, demoralizing 
precedent it has just sanctioned, in prefening for the highest civil office 
of the government a mere warrior, whose principles were designedly veiled, 
and whose qualifications were untried, to a statesman of known principles 
and admitted qualifications ! This precedent can not stand the test of scru- 
tiny and of time, and perhaps you are right in saying " the less said, the 
better," about it. 

I feel most poignantly the burning sarcasm of your "historic curiosity," 
in recrnrd to the course of the Ohio delegation. When I wroJe vouJast, I 
did not know how they had voted, and even then supposed a majoiity of 
them had voted for you, and that some from New York had deserted you. 
But New York, which some had denounced as huckstering, trading, vascil- 
lating, stood firm ; while the Ohio delegation (all but one) deserted even 
before the hour of battle ! I have no apology for this. N( r do I oven 
yet satisfactorily understand it. Not fully understanding the course of the 
Ohio delegation, a conclui^ive judgment against them would be premature, 
if not unjust ; but from what I have learned thus far, 1 can see no escape 
for them from the imputation of lack of sagacity or integrity ; and they 
certainly must be allowed too much intelligence to be deficient in the 
former. Not one of them has yet been here, and I have heard no expla- 
nation of their conduct from their side. 

******* 

* This is copied from the rougli draught kept by me. The original to Mr. Clay 
may vary somewhat in language, but not in substance. — T. B. S. 

30 



466 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

I wrote you a month or more ago, that the movement for Scott, impelled 
as I then believed, by the ultra opposition of Ohio to slavery extension, 
was more formidable than it seemed. This and other symptoms of defec- 
tion, of which I gave you the earliest intimations and evidences, induced 
me to suggest that a contingent power to withdraw your name from the 
consideration of the Convention, should be put in Harlan's hands. Morti- 
fied as I am at the result, I am now better content ; hav-ing secured in the 
ballotiijgs a test of men and sections, that may be useful hereafter. 

Whatever you may hear from the hurrah-ites, the nomination goes down 
very badly in this State ; and the delegates will have an uj)-hill business 
of it yet with the discussions that 7Jiust ensue in regard to their couree in 
the National Convention. 

The State Convention is in session now at Columbus. As thi:igs now 
stand, Taylor can 't carry Ohio ; and it is believed his loss* will average at 
least one hundred to a county — say ten thousand in the State, besides the 
body of the Quakers, The accessions from the Democrats, I think, will 
not reimburse either loss, A friend in New York writes me flatly that 
Taylor can 't carry that State, I think no rational estimate of probable 
future results can be made till- the eftect of the demonstrations at Colum- 
bus, Utica, and Worcester, be seen. 

As to the Presidential campaign, though I have a weak stomach for the 
fight, I must, on two grounds, go for Taylor ; first, because, having gone 
into the Convention with you, I am bound in honor by the result ; and 
second, because, in every aspect, I prefer Taylor to Cass, and can see no 
means so likely to defeat Cass now as running Taylor — tliough I am not 
yet entirely satisfied that will be absolutely availing, I admit these arc 
narrow grounds for a thinking man to act on ; but they are the best left 
me to stand on, and that very reflection makes me so much more re- 
sentful toward the manasjcrs Avho have thrust the Whiixs into such an un- 
satisfactory position — or in other words, have acted with such disregard 
of princijple. 

I think we are likely to lose our State elections here, as well as the 
Presidential, * * * ^s ^jyg^ yours. 



LEITER Xni. 

THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO THOMAS CORWIN. 

CixcrNXATi, Thursday, Juno 29, 1848. 
My Dear Sir — I have received your favor of the 2.3d inst. My im- 
pression still is, that the chances are against us in Ohio, in both State and 
national ilciition*;. T liear sober-mindod Whigs saying, in an under tone, 
llioy would be glad to coinproini~;o in Ohio tor a Whig Legislature, and 
give the Locos th<3 Governorship and C:i?s the electoral vote for the Presi- 
dency, I am not going to delude myself or my friends, if I know it. I 



HENRY CLAY. 467 

think we must all agree that, to cany Ohio for any Wliig candidate for 
the Presidency, it is essential that we all pull together, and all interests of 
the parly unite. But all doirt pull together — all doii't unite. The 
Quaker Whigs are lost — the Reserve Whigs are many of them lost — the 
Green County Whigs;, with tlu'ir neighboring allies, are many of them lost, 
and nearly all of them cold — the Miami tribes are lacking in enthusiasm 
— and then this " Free Territory party" (the Whig Barnburners of Ohio), 
have made formidable head. I might argue to you, as you do to me, the 
folly of all these people ; I might join you in asking them cici bono? I 
might tell them they are playing into the hands of Cass, in effect, as indeed 
is the fact; but what does it signify if I do? The disaffected won't listen 

to you or me. and , and many more men of still greater 

influence, tvill hazard the evils you apprehend. I have labored with them 
both, and with others, employing the very arguments and suggesting all 
the views you suggest; but in vain with many of them. As to indem- 
nity from Loco-foco ranks, I don't see any evidence that we shall get 
that. Here and there a pseudo Loco saijs he will go for Taylor ; but I 
know of more "Whigs who won't go for Taylor, than I hear of Locos 
who will. 

You seem joyed at Van Buren's nomination by the Barnburners ; and 
perha])S it may aid us in New York. It certainly will, if he don't take the 
State from both Cass and Taylor, which, it is seriously apprehended by 
some "Whigs here, he will. As to the effect of his runnins: in Ohio — 
though at first blush it might seem to be favorable to Taylor — some cal- 



o 



culate that he will take off more "Whigs than Locos. You can judge of 
this better than L My mode of writing letters to friends, is to give pres- 
ent facts and impressions at the time of writing. In the transition state of 
sentiment and feeling pervading all parties, no calculation is safe now — 
nothing is certain but that both parties are virtually disbanded, and new 
combinations .ind organizations are in process of formation. I now be- 
lieve that Van Buren will damage Taylor more than Cass in Ohio. The 
di^;aflected "Whigs argue thus — and with a troublesome show of plaus- 
ibility : 

" Taylor's nomination was urged, without committing him to Whig prin- 
ciples, on the assumption that Whig principles were dead or dormant. 
The nomination was made by a Convention which, so far from re-affirming 
Whig prin(.'ip!es, refused to consider any propositions looking thitherward, 
and only forbore kicking out of it the factious delegates who wished such 
a re-affirmation ]>roclaimed ; and therefore (argue the disaffected), if all 
this be so — if Whig principles be not in issue, at least the question of ex- 
cluding slaveiy from new tenitory is a present, practical, living issue, par- 
amount to Whig principles, even if they were not dead or dormant ; and 
why, then, in such a state of facts, should Ave not go for Van Ihnvn, an 
affirmative representative of this living, iunninent, paramount, practical 



468 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

question, in preference to one who, in tlie best view we can take of Lira, is 
only less exceptionable than Cass.'' 

******** 

I expect you will, in spite of yourself, have to take the stump in Ohio. 
If there was not so much to commiserate in the conception, I should 
amuse myself by the fancy of seeing the author of a certain anti-war speech 
— the leader of the anti-war party — the moral hero of the times — pound- 
ing, grinding, compounding, and igniting brimstone, charcoal, and salt- 
petre, for the edification of those who once thought themselves enlightened, 
and purified, and rendered better men by the aforesaid speech. It is not 
fair, to be sure, that the " spontaneous combustion" don't go ofi' on its own 
hook ; but the thing mxist go, and you will have to sweat at the mortar 
and pe<tle, grinding the crude elements into the villainous compound called 
gunpowder-popularity, in favor of that most euphonious of all names since 
the invention of nomenclature — ''Old ZachT This, to be sure, is not "the 
entertainment to which we were invited ;" but if combustion won't go on 
spontaneously, why, we must sweat and make it go. Sweat, you know, 
according to an old law, is the price of bread ; and we, poor devils, must 
sweat to make Zachary prime minister of the White ITousc Kitchen. 

I slept one night at Ashland, less soundly than its illustrious occupant. 
As to the effect of the doings of the riiiladolpliia Convention on Mr. Clay, 
his betcnyers can feel no interest in knowing. The most they have a right 
to expect — as I imagine it is the most they will get — is, that he remains 
submissive to an event that is irrevocable, and gives no countenance to 
the third-party designs formed on him by Whigs, such as have n-.ade head 
by Locos on Van 13uren. Those who, by one stab, have commiUed both 
parricide and suicide, may heat themselves burning gunpowder till Novem- 
ber ; he will cool his heels and compose his heart long after that, in the 
shades of Ashland. He loves his principles and his country still, and will 
ever love them. They call on him now, however, to assure the country of 
Zachary's whiggery. Perhaps he might, if that Avas Zachary's theory of 
making the race ; but as it is not, such an assurance would be intrusive, if 
not injurious. Besides, in those times of commercial politics, ought he to 
endorse a bill, the payee himself refusing to sign ? Moreover, does avail- 
aJbility need aid of unavaUahUity ? These be bitter things ; but there is a 
great deal of human nature even in a man capable of bearing the slings and 
arrows of outrageous fortune. Now, my dear sir, if availability don't hap- 
pen to turn out available, I think your prediction will be verified, that half- 
civilized Kentucky will relapse into the utter barbarism of Locofocoism ; to 
which 1 will add that half, or not liaif-faithful Ohio, will keep her sister 
company ; and treachery and pan-icido can then console one another. 
Who has a sore head, has a right to scratch and growl ; and I have seen 
no explanation yet, in regard to the conduct of tlie Ohio and Kentucky 
delcg:itions, consistent with the sagacity or integrity of either. 

* ****** * 



HENRY CLAY. 469 



LETTER XIV. 



THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO JAMES B. CLAY. 

Cincinnati, July 19, 1848. 
Dear Sir — Yours, erroneously dated 19th, post-marked 18tli, reached 
me this morning. 

So far as my opinion goes (if it be not deemed impertinent, unasked, to 
offer it), I have no doubt Mr. Crittenden desired the nomination of General 
Taylor, on the ground that he believed no one else could be elected by the 
Whigs ; but that neither in public nor in private, he used any means to 
effect it incompatible with friendship toward your father, or with what he 
owed to himself as a gentleman. And I must do him the justice to say 
that, though I was entirely dissatisiied with the reasons for his belief as to 
the superior availabilty of Taylor, and still more with the groun-ls on 
which he was willing to take up Taylor, not manifesting what I deemed a 
due regard for the great principles which I thought involved ; yet he uni- 
formly and eai'nestly professed to me his decided preference for ^Ir. Clay 
over all men, and his purpose to fight under his flag, live or die, while ever 
it was in the field. If, while Mr. Clay's flag was in the field, he endeavored 
to haul it down, or to give predominance to any other, I shall be com- 
pelled either to doubt the sincerity of his avowals to me, or to believe 
that his feelings and preferences, no less than his judgment or his prin- 
ciples, underwent a great change. 

I will thank you to say to your father what I have omitted to explain, 
that I have not yet written to the New York Tribune on the subject on 
which I voluntarily proposed to write ; but from no slackened purpose or 
zeal in the matter. Cn reflection and inquiry, after returning here, I 
thought it best to give the Ohio delegation ample time to explain their 
conduct to their constituents, before I arraigned any of them, even indi- 
rectly, and by all reasonable calculation they should have done so ere now. 
But not one of tliem has defended as yet. I have not seen L'llommc- 
dieu, the delegate from this city, since his return, but I understand that 
he wrote an explanation of the course of the Ohio delegation for the 
Gazette, which was suppressed m that oflSce. I did not learn the nature 
of the explanation, but have been informed that he is not satisfied with 
himself. I have expected also, before now, an interview with Campbell, 
another delecrate, and the nominator of Scott, whom I had severely ar- 
raio-ned in private correspondence. He promises to meet me in a few days. 

I have seen Governor Bebb, and had some pretty fierce words with him 
on his faithlessness and vacillation toward Mr. Clay, lie gave me, in a de- 
fiant tone, his fidl permission to publish liis letter urging Mr. Clay to let 
his name go to the Convention. I will use it time enough for him, and 
Bhall certainly, in good time, handle him and some others rather ungoutly. 



470 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

As between Taylor and Cass, in ;iny aspect, I can not hesitate support- 
intj the former ; but that support shall be so qualified as to reserve my old 
principles and attachments, and, besides, in no way to restrain the just 
vengeance I sliall assuredly take on those heartless men who have be- 
trayed personal friendship as well as disregarded sound principles ; and in 
this category I include some of Kentucky as well as of Ohio. 

Yours, truly. 



LETTER XV. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B, STEVENSON. 

[Private and Confidential.) 

AsuLAND, August 5, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — I returned home yesterday from the Estill Springs, where 
I received your favor of the 26!li ult., with the speech of Mi'. Campbell* 
accompanying it, for Avhich I thank you. That speech, connected with a 
letter which I have received from Ohio from a particular friend, throws 
some light on the course of the Ohio delegation. It appe.irs that it was 

controlled by , who was himself controlled by a clique at 

Washiii"-ton of members of Consxross. As the dolcijation could not be 
prevailed upon to go directly for General Taylor, the next best thing for 
him w;ts to take it fi"om me, throw it away upon General Scott, and thus 
indirectly advance the interests of General Taylor. 

I have received a letter from General Scott, in which he writes to me: 

" The day after I landed, a distinguished public man fi'ora a wing of the 
Capitol — a friend of yours — passing by, got out of the train to speak to 
nie. I stated my impressions and wishes to him, and was astonished to 
hear him say, that your friends in Congress, with few exceptions — Berrien 
and Botts, but no Kentuckian, were two of them — had given you up on 
some calculation of a want of availability ! I promptly said, if I could be 
flattered into the belief that my name on the same ticket (below youi"s) 
would add the vote of a single State, I might be considered as at the service 
of the I'arty, and authorized him to say so on his return to Washington." 

Tlius you see a filse suggestion as to those who were friendly to mo in 
Congress, and the suppression of the truth as to the willingness of General 
Scott to run as a candidate for the Vice Presideney on the ticket with me. 
I believe, indee 1, that it was represented at the Philadelphia Convention 
tliat he would not consent to run with me. I can not conjecture who the 
distinguished jniblic niai is to whom he refers from the Capitol. 

You ask me what I think of the Compromise bill.f Its fate in the 
ITouse of Representatives supersede* the necessity of my expressing any 

• lion. Lewis D. Campbell, a delegate, aud since a distinguished member of Con- 
gress— T. 15. S. 

\ Mr. Clayton's Compromise bill, in sub.stance propo.sing to make a case on tho 
Slavery question, tu be tried by the Supremo Court. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 471 

opinion about it ; but I will say that I tliink it merited its fate. It settled 
uotliiiif; ; but covering the sore with a thin plaster, it left it to foster, and 
to break out with more alarm and violence than ever. I wish the question 
was fairly settled ; but that can not, perhaps onght not to be done, without 
a retrocession of the territory, or the preservation of it in the condition in 
which it now is as to slavery. 

I observe what you say as to the N-iolent language of the partisans of 
General Taylor and Mr, Crittenden towards me, in consequence of my si- 
lence. It does not disturb my equanimity, nor will it drive me from the 
even tenor of my way. All my solicitude now, in regard to myself, is to 
preserve untarnislied my humble fame, and I mean to be the exclusive judge 
of the best means to accomplish that object. Neither temporary popularity, 
nor unpopularity, will shake me. 

I regret extremely the eftect upon the honest Whig masses in Ohio of 
the Philadelphia nomination. From all I hear, the State must be lost on 
the Pcesidential election, if it be possible to save the State elections. So 
many Whigs in that State attach a vital and absorbing influence to the 
question of Free Territory, that I do not see how they can tail to avail 
themselves of an opportunity to vote for a candidate coinciding with them, 
if such a one shall be presented. And the proceedings in Congress on that 
subject, with Mr. Corwin's able and eloquent speech, must increase that 
tendency. How indeed can Mr. Corwin support either Taylor or Cass ! 
Will he support Taylor against his own convictions ? 

Mj son James showed me your letter to him. 

I should be glad to see your letter to the Tribzine* and to hear what Mr. 
Corwin says in answer to that you addressed to him. 

I am, truly, your friend. 



LETTER XVI. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

[Private.) 

Ashland, August 14, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — I was extremely sorry to learn, by your letter of the 10th 
inst., the alarming illness of your child, which I sincerely hope may be 
spared to you, notwithstanding your fears. 

My friend in Ohio (Mr. , of Lancaster) attributes to • 

the controlling influence which determined the course of the Ohio delega- 
tion ; he himself being gained over by the influence of the Congressional 
clique at Washington. That is now my opinion. AVith that view he pre- 
vailed on the twenty delegates to go together, and to promise that none 

* Mr. Clay, nftcr the nomination of General Taylor, was extremely concerned as to 
his political relations to Ohio. I volunteered a letter to the Tribune, justif\-ing hia 
position, his motives, and conduct, which gratified him much. See Letter XVII. — 
T. B. S. 



472 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

would break unless all did so. With that view, also, he opposed, as Mr. 
states, any appointment of a committee to confer vdih the dele- 
gates from other States. 

I suspect that the disLinguished friend of mine, as General Scott calls him, 
to whom he communicated his willingness to run as Vice President on a 
ticket with me, was G. Duncan,* who was in New York about the time of 
the General's arrival from Mexico. General Scott's letter to me is not 
marked private nor confidential ; and I think you might say, in your letter 
to the Tribune, " that you have had the most satisfactory evidence that 
General Scott was willing to run as a candidate for the Vice Presidency on 
a ticket with me, and that that fact was not disclosed to the membeis of 
the Philadelphia Convention by the member of Congress who was author- 
ized to make it known." 

The retrocession of New Mexico and CaHfornia, I did not suppose to be 
at present practicable ; but if the question to which they have given rise, 
should long remain unsettled, and the existing excitement and agitation 
should continue and increase, I should not be surprised if public opinion 
should finally take that direction. If the South were wise, it would yield 
the point in dispute, even if, contrary to my opinion, it was with her. In 
the mean time, many of the friends of the jirinciple that free territory should 
remain free, are putting themselves in a position full of embarrassment. 
They think it is the great question of the day, over-ruling and superseding 
all other questions. How then can they vote against a Presidential candi- 
date who agrees with them, and for another, who differs from them, on that 
paramount question ? I, who do not attach the same importance to that 
question, feel no such embairassment. 

I am excessively bored (even from Ohio I) to come out and endorse Gen- 
eral Taylor. As if he had not spoken in a way that all may comprehend 
him ! As if it were not enough that I should submit quietly to the de- 
cision of the Philadelphia Convention ! Suppose I could endorse him, 
and being elected, he should totally disappoint Whig hopes, would 
I not be justly liable to the reproaches of any one that I might have 
misled ? 

North Carolina was one of the States which was to have gone for him 
by spontaneous combustion, and what has she done ? Governor Morehead 
[of that State] told .ludge Robertson that she would have given me a major- 
ity of twi'lve thousand. 

The Whig clique at Washington totally mistook the character of the 
Whig party, as it once was. You have correctly described it. It is not a 
gunpowder party. 

If Congress has risen without an adjustment of the slave question, I 
think the t'uturc full of unci-rtainiy. Air. Van lUiron will, I believe, get a 

* Hon. Ganictt Duncan, a representative in Con<^rc33 from the Louisville (Ky.) dis- 
tnoL (ioncral .Scott writes nio, January 14, 1830, that the person referred to was 
noitber Mr. Duncan, uor any other Western man. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 473 

much larger vote than is now imagined. The Whig party at the North 
and in Ohio is much more imbued with the anti-slavery feeling than the 
Locofoco party, and of course, in all the States, except New York, he will 
make upon the former, the larger inroads. I should not be surprised if 
many of the Old Tlunkeis in New York unite with the Barnl>urners and 
the dissatisfied Whigs to give the vote of that State to Mr. V;ai Buren, 
and thereby indirectly promote the interest of General Cass. But I 
cease with speculations, and remain ever, Truly your friend. 



LETTER XVII. 

THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.* 

MR. CLAY AND THE WUIGS OF OHIO GENERAL SCOTT AND THE 

VICE PRESIDENCY. 

Cincinnati, August 24, 1848. 

In his address to the public, under date, April 10, 1848, in which was 
signified his consent that his name might be considered by the Whig 
National Convention, in the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, 
Mr. Clay stated the controlling reasons which determined him, contrary to 
his previous inclinations, to yield that consent. Among the influences 
which led to his decision, the sentiments and wishes of Ohio had much 
force. His statement of the position of this great Whig State, standing 
in appropriate connection with the avowal of individual inclinations and 
views of duty which he entertained on the subject of assuming again the 
attitude of a candidate, is embodied in the extract following : 

" With a strong disinclination to the use of my name again in connec- 
tion with that office, I left my residence in December last, under a deter- 
mination to announce to the public, in some suitable form, my desiie not 
to be thought of as a candidate. During my absence, I frequently ex- 
pressed to ditlerent gentlemen my unwillingness to be again in that atti- 
tude ; but no one was authorized to publish my decision one way or the 
other, having reserved the right to do so exclusively to myself. On reflec- 
tion, I thouglit it was due to my friends to consult with them betbre I took 
a final and decisive step. Acconlingly, in the course of the last three 
months, I had many opportunities of coidening fully and freely with them. 
Many of them have addressed to me the strongest appeals, and the most 
earnest entreaties, both verbal and written, to dissuade me from executing 
my intended purpose. They have represented to me that the withdrawal 
of my name would be fatal to the success, and, perhaps, le:td to the dis- 
solution, of the party with which I have been associated, especially in the 
free States ; that at no former period did there ever exist so great a proba- 
bility of my election, if I would consent to the use of my name ; that the 

* ThLs letter was published in the Tribune and is here copied from that print. 
— T. B. S. 



474 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

great States of New York atul Ohio would, in all human probability, cast 
their votes for ine ; that New Yoi k would more certainly bestow her suf- 
frage upon me tlian upon any other candidate ; and that Ohio would give 
her vote to no candidate, residing in the slave States, but to me." 

The course of the Ohio delegation in the Convention, of which but one 
menilier cast a vote for Mr. Clay, not only not sustaining, but. apparently, 
refuting this representation of the position of Ohio ; and Mr. Clay having 
been severely criticised by some persons for making it ; I deem it but an 
act of justice to that noble minded statesman and pixtriot, in order to vin- 
dicate his truth and protect him from the imputation of having too highly 
colored liis prospects in view of thereby securing the nomination, to show 
that his representation was not unwarranted. Indeed, it was corroborated 
by every evidence known to the public. 

If the delicacy of his sentiments, on a question in regard to wliich feel- 
ings of disappointed ambition might be ascribed to him, constrains him to 
preserve a dignified silence, that fact oidy strengthens his claim to this act 
of friendship and justice. If " he would rather be right than be President," 
so, not for the Presidency would lie do wrong. Much loss, then, should he 
be deemed capable of constructing an argument, on baseless grounds, to 
favor the chances of procuring a nomination for that office. Should any, 
looking to the promise from Ohio, set forth in the Address, and failing to 
see the fulfillment in the votes of her delegation, be inclined to assert that 
his eagerness unduly inflamed his hopes and expressions, the sarcastic spirit 
of the remark must be confessed ; but its point should be aimed at others, 
if at any, rather t'.ian Mr. Clay. 

It may be well supposed that Mr. Clay, though uttering ni'ither com- 
plaints nor reproaches, indulges keen regrets at having been led into error 
as to the sentiments of Ohio, and, consequently, into a false position himself; 
for, most ccrtainbj, had he anticipated such a vote as her deh'jation actu- 
alhj cast with respect to himself, he xvould not, assuredly, have permitted 
the nse of his name before the Convention. 

It is due, then, in his justification to aver, that numerous representations 
made to him by gentlemen entitled to his entire respect, more than war- 
ranti'd all In- said of ( )]iio. ( )t' the contents of some of the letters addressed 
to him from various quarters of the State — from the Lake, tVom the center, 
and fiom the borders — by eminent gentlemen, holding the highest soci;U 
and oliieial positions, some of them standing in peculiarly commanding re- 
lations to the State organization of the Whig party, and all of them not 
merely of ])resumed, but of undoubtedly aeourate knowledge of the senti- 
ments f)f the State, / speak by the card ; for tliey were voluntarily in- 
closed to Hie for transmission to him, though I had never sought to pro- 
cure any such letters to be written, nor to enjoy the pleasure of reading 
them, nor to exeeute the office, however agreeable in itself, of commending 
them, in obedience to the desire of the writers, to his serious considera- 
tion. Having thus been made an instrument, in some sort, of influencing 



HENRY CLAY. 475 

Lis course, I feel the more strongly impelled, and the more conelusivelj 
justified, in presentincj this vnluntaru testimony to shield him from the 
evil consequences resultinijf, it' any result, from his error, if, iudeed, he in- 
dulged any error, as to the sentiments and predilections of Ohio, respcctiug 
a Presidential candidate. 

The letters forwarded through nie, soon after Mr. Clay's return from the 
East, when an apprehension prevailed extensively that he would not allow 
his naixaC to be presented to the Convention, urged earnest remonstrances. 
on behalf of a vast majority of the Whigs of Ohio, against the withdrawal 
of his name, and as earnest appeals to submit it to the Convention. They 
represented that General Taylor could never receive the Whiy vote of 
Ohio ; that large masses — the Quakers, people of the Western Reserve, the 
Miami tribes — never would vote to support war, slavery extension, and 
non-commitalism ; that Judge McLean, having no strong b.old on the 
Whig heart of Ohio, neither old Whigs nor young would willingly take 
him ; that though Mr. Corwin was preferred in Ohio, his friends thought 
that this was not the proper time to press that preference ; that a lai'ge 
number of the counties had declared for Clay, and scarcely one for either 
Taylor, Scott, or McLean ; that the fiiends of Clay and Corwin were ident- 
ical almost universally in Ohio ; that the Corwin men said, " Give us Cor- 
win or Clay," and the Clay men said, " Give us Clay or Corwin ;"' that 
they believed Ohio could be carried again for Clay, that there was scarcely 
a doubt of it, and that it cerfainlt/ could, if he should declare for the Ordin- 
ance of '87 ; that, should Taylor be nominated, the Whigs of the North 
would be compelled, in self-ilefense, to nominate a Northern man or suflfer 
dissolution ; that some would vote for ILale, some for Taylor, and some for 
any Wilmot-Proviso Democrat who should chance to run ; tliut it would 
be a vain efibrt to attempt to give the Whig vote of the State to Taylor ; 
that a much larger number of reliable Whigs preferred Clay than favored 
the claims of any other person spoken of; that, as a first choice in Ohio, 
sentiment was rapidly concentrating on Clay, and most certainly it was 
already almost universally directed to him as a second choice ; that at that 
time, McLean, Taylor, Corwin, and CHay were the only persons seriously 
thought of for the Presidency in Ohio ; that neither McLean nor Taylor 
would get any support from Ohio until all h()])e of tlie success of Corwin 
and Clay was abandoned ; that, should either Taylor or McLenn be forced 
on the partv, defeat in Ohio would be certain ; that they would feel as if 
all were afloat on a tempestuous, or, at least, uncertain sen, if Clay's name 
were withdrawn ; that it was hoped no continjency would arise in which ho 
would withhold it, etc., etc., etc. 

Such were some of the considerations addressed to Mr. Clay, by gentle- 
men of the highest respectability in Ohio. It is admitted that such repre- 
sentations, from such sources, which, he did not doubt, were " honestly made 
and sincerelv b lieved," were entitled to his credence and consideration, 
and that what he said in regard to Ohio in his Address, wius fully war- 



476 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

ranted. Let none, then, blame Jam for what he said — let none repeat an 
expression of regret that he said what he did. Let us rather regret that 
gentlemen from Ohio led him into error, or if their representations were 
well founded, their truth was not verified in the expected actioa of others. 
But it is not my design to arraign the conduct of any; but simply to pre- 
sent facts, of which the coloring is softened rather than heightened. 

Another po-.tion of the history of the late Whig National Convention, 
jecently brought to my knowledge, will perhaps surprise others, especially 
in Ohio, as much as it did mo, wherein, according to my humble con- 
viction, it appears that by neglect of duty, disregard of instiuctions, or 
some other cause, justice was not done to the Whig party, if indeed a 
gross wrong was not designedly perpetrated against Mr. Clay and General 

Scott. 

/ am in possession of the most satisfactory evidence that General Scott 
was williny to run for the Vice Presidency on a ticket with Mr. Clay ; 
hut that fact was not disclosed to tfie members of the Philadelphia Con- 
vention, by the member of Congress who ibas authorized to make it 
known ! 

" Clay and Scott," was a ticket ardently desired by a great many Whigs 
— perhaps a vast majority of them — in Ohio; but the apprehension 
seemed to be universal that General Scott would, under no circumstances, 
run for the secondary office. 

Constantly engaged in active and earnest exertions, as you know, to 
promote the election of the Philadelphia nominees, whicli I most sin- 
cerely and ardently desire for the good of the country, I have addressed 
you this communication in not the slightest spirit of opposition to them. 
They were parties to none of the transactions here adverted to. Impelled 
solely by the conviction that justice to Mr. Clay and duty to the public re- 
quire this exposition, it is respectfully submitted through the Tribune. 



[The two letters following, corroborating the foregoing, one from Gov- 
ernor Bebb, and the other from Samuel Forrer, of the same general tenor 
of others addressed to Mr. Clay, make an appropriate appendix to the com- 
munication to the New York J'ribune.^ 



LETTER XVin. 



WILLIAM UEBn TO Mlt. CLAY.* 



ITamiltov, Ohio, April 4, 1848. 
Dear Sir — Sentiments of delicacy which you can better appreciate than 
I express, have detained nie until now from adding my humble but earnest 

* Tho lii.story of this letter is as follows: A day or two before its date I received 
a message from Governor Bebb to meet him at night at his lodgings, at a hotel in Cin- 
cimiatL When 1 waited on him, he said he had come down to tho city to consult mo 



HENRY CLAY. 477 

remoiistr:iiice to that of a. vast majority of our political friends a^jainst 
your withdrawal from the Presidential canvass. 

To enumerate the facts and reasons upon which 1 would base this re- 
monstrance, to one familiar as you are with the whole suljcct, and 
actuated by the motives which have directed your life and must determ- 
ine your decision, would be equally officious and unnecessary. But there 
are some facts and considerations, perhaps more apparent to one residing 
north of the Ohio river, and who has several times canvassed either a 
large portion or the whole of the State, than to any one soutli of that 
river, however ample his means of knowledge, or extended his vision. 

1. General Tavlor, unless I have entirely misunderstood the Whigs and 
people of Ohio, never can get her Whi'y vote. Large masses of our 
people, Quakers, the Western Reserve, the Miami Tribes, never will vote to 
support war, slavery extension, and non-committalism. For one of the Whig 
family let me say that, having cast my first vote for Clay, in 1824, almost 
alone, in a dark corner of old Bulhr, in the face of the storm of Jackson- 
ism, I can, at forty-five, vote aganst another military chieftain, more non- 
oomniittal, and possessing fewer civil pretensions than even Andrew 

Jackson. 

2. Judge McLean is a capable m;in, of high moral character, and pos- 
sessing administrative qualities of no common order. But he has no 
strong hold on the Whig heart of Ohio. Neither the old friends of Clay, 
nor the young fiiends of Corwin, are at all hkely willingly to take him. 
The former will remember not to forget old scores, and the latter new ones. 

on the propriety of communicating tlio views contained in tlio loiter, and iu what 
form, preferring himself to go to Ashland, and desiring me to furnish him a letter to 
Mr. Cla}'- to be used either in the event of his going in person or writing. I had 
never any intercourse with him before, and had no knowledge of his character, which 
I, however, supposed to be honorable. He certainly wore a showy, plausible, and 
zealous appearance; and, concurring in his avowed object, believing his focts. and 
not doubting his sinceritj^ 1 advised him to tvrite to Mr. Clay, and gave him the de- 
sired letter, commending him and his views to Mr. Clay's flivorable consideration. 
Mr. Clay's response, private and public, corresponded to the professed wishes of Gov- 
ernor Bebb's letter. After lir. Clay's consent was given to the use of his name before 
the Xational Convention, but prior to its assemblage, I was astonished by information 
that Bebb was actively engaged in an intrigue to supplant Mr. Clay by bringing 
forward General Scott. A few days after the nomination of the Philadelphia Con- 
vention was proclaimed, passing up Third-street in Cincinnati. I found this man, 
equally flippant and fluent, discoursing to a number of gentlemen on the steps of a 
Bank, signalizing his zeal for General Taylor, and his displeasure at the factiousness 
of the " soro-headed Olay-'Whi-^s" who Avero dissatisfied at Taylor's nomination. I 
was well-known to be one of those who owned, if not '-sore heads," bruised hearts; 
and nettled by the insult, and feeling contempt for l1ic man, I retorted by a refer- 
ence to the evidence of his treachery contained in his letter to ilr. Clay. IIo made 
a feeble attempt to parry ; and defied the pubhcation of his letter. I determined to 
publish it when I thought proper; and hero it is, perhaps the best example in his- 
tory of a treacherous document aiding iu the support of an honest reputation like 
that of Mr. Clay.— T. B. S. 



478 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

Besides, the judge is not what Algebraists term a positive quantity. Few 
hate, nobody loves him. 

3. Ohio prefers Corwin to all linng men, yet a large number of her 
counties have declared for you, and scarcely one for either Taylor, Scott, 
or McLean. The Corwin men saj'. Give us Corwin, or give us Cla}^ — the 
Clav men say. Give us Clay or give us Corwin. 

4. What is true of Ohio as it regiirds General Taylor, is true of New 
Yurk and much of New England. 

5. Can you not get all the States you got before and New York be- 
sides ? I can not answer for the others, but I believe we can give you Ohio 
again — certainly if you declare for our favorite ordinance of '87. 

6. Should General Taylor be nominated it seems to me the "Whigs of 
the North will be compelled, in self-defense, to nominate a Northern man, 
or suffer utter dissolution. Some \vould vote for Hale, some for Taylor, 
and some for any Wilmot Proviso Democrat that should happen to run. 
Much better would it be for the AMiigs of Ohio to throw their votes away, 
than to eat their words, abandon their principles, advocate all they have 
heretofore opposed, and oppose all they have heretofore advocated, and 
thu<^ lose their moral power and their self-respect, in a vain effort to give 
the Whig vote of the State to General Taylor. Should even enough of 
L<K-ofocos fall into our ranks to give us a momentary victory, they would 
abandon us whenever a civilian or avowed Whig should be our candidate. 
I infinitely prefer our position as a conservative minority, to such shuffling 
and sacrifice of true men for accidental allies. 

Pardon this plain blunt letter. I have long felt a desire to say to you 
the substance of what it contains, resisted by a strong aversion to appear 
obtrusive. This feeling, or rather dilemma, I communicated to our friend, 
Mr. Stevenson, who determined me to write, and who kindly handed me 
the inclosed letter. 

Hoping your mind may be directed to wise conclusions, as I am sure it 
will be by the most patriotic motives, permit me to subscribe myself, with 
the highest esteem and regard, 

Your friend and obedient servant. 



LETTER XIX. 

SAMUEL FOnUER TO MR. CLAY. 

CoLrxinrs, April 7, 1848. 
• Dkau Sir — Many, verj' many, of your old and sincere iViuuds have 
recently become much alarmed by the frequent intimations, from sources 
seemingly entitled to consideration, that it is your intention not to permit 
your name to be presented to the W'liig National Convention for nomination 
to the olRoe of President of the United States. Yet we can not doubt that 
yon will give to the subject the full latitude of your mature judgment and 



HENRY CLAY. 479 

grave consideration, before you decide against the wishes, as I believe, of a 
laro-er, much laiircr, nuiiiber of reliable WIii<;s than can be found to favor 
the claims of any one of the gentlemen yet named for that important office. 
It seems to me, indeed, that even as a first choice, public sentiment is 
ra})idly concentrating to one point, and most certainly it is already almost 
universally directed to the same point as a second choice ; at least, such / 
know to be the case in Ohio. The position which you at present occupy, 
in reference to the Presidential question, is the inevitable result of the early 
affections and long-established confidence of the universal W^ig party ; and 
the only question of importance Avhicli at all divi<]es us here, and, as I sup- 
pose, elsewhere, is that of availability. I Avill not presume to offer to you 
an opinion in regard to the question of availability in its entire range. 
You alone can look over the whole ground ; but as you must of necessity 
judge from a great number of individual opinions, and local, isolated facts, 
you will, I trust, though I am little known to you, indulge me with the ex- 
pression of my convictions as to the state of feeling in Ohio : 

First, then, Judge McLean, General Taylor, Mr. Corwin, and yourself are 
the only persons seriously thought of here for nomination. Neither of the 
two first will receive any support in the National Convention imtil all hope 
of success for Mr. Corwin or yourself is entirely abandoned. It is true, 
our delegates are not yet all appointed, but I think I can not be mistaken in 
this opinion.* Again, if either of these gentlemen is forced upon us, I 
consider defeat as certain. .Judge McLean can not possibly get the full Whig 
vote of Ohio. In the Miami district, where I am best acquainted, the nomi- 
nation of the Judge would cause an apathy among not only the old reliable 
"Whigs, but also among the young working Whigs, to an extent which 
would alone prove fatal, no matter how full the vote in other portions of 
the State. The nomination would create no enthusiasm in any portion of 
the State ; and without an enthusiastic and general movement in favor of 
our candidate, we can not possibly succeed here. General Taylor would 
receive but little support in the Western Reserve, and however much we 
esteem him as a man, or admire him as a soldier, our people can not, even 
out of the " Reserve," be brought to his support. There would doubtless 
be some enthusiasm enlisted in his behalf, in certain localities (in the Sciota 
valley, for one), and some who are not Whigs might be induced to support 
him ; but the defections among the Whigs of the " Reserve" alone would 
be so great that no extraneous acquisition can possibly compensate for the 
loss. 

Your friends and the friends of Mr. Corwin here are identical almost 
universally. The exceptions are in the " Reserve," where there is perhaps 
less doubt as to Mr. Corwiu's views in regard to the introduction of slavery 
in newlv acquired territory, where some might vote tor him who would not 
vote for vou. The number, however, would be small. There are also some 

* Wlicn the delegates wore all appointed, the prevailing complexion of the delo- 
gfttioD, as a whole, strongly and decisively corroborated Mr. Fon-er's views. — T. B. S. 



480 CORKESPOXDENCE OF 

good Whigs, and most devoted friends of yours, in some of tbo counties 
east of the Sciota River, who have not yet forgiven Mr. Corwin for permit- 
tinrf the General Assembly of Ohio to prefer him to a seat in the Senate 
of the United Stotcs, There is, however, scarcely a doubt that cither your- 
self or Mr, Corwin could obtain the vote of Ohio ; and although Mr. Corwin 
would undoubtedly be the choice of the Whigs of this State against all , 
others, for reasons which you can readily appreciate and excuse, yet, as we 
can hardlv hope that this is the proper time to press our individual prefer- 
ence, we look to you for our standard-bearer in the next campaign ; and 
really, sir, we should feel as if all were afloat on a most tempestuous, or, at 
least, uuf'ertain sea, if your name were no longer among those from whom 
the National Convention may select a candidate. Let us then hope that 
we may once more have the pleasure of rallying around our old and tried 
standard-bearer, and that no contingency may arise to prevent your remain- 
ing passive at least, and that you will permit your friends to present your 
name to the National Convention. 

I need not say that it would give me gi'eat pleasure to bear fi-om you, 
but I can not have the heart to tax you with any additional correspondence 
to tliat which must already be an intolerable burden to you. 

1 still reside at Dayton where I last had the pleasure of seeing you. 

Yours traly. 



LETTER XX. 

THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO MU. CLAY. 

FiiAKKFORT, August 29, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — The worst apprehensions in regard to my daughter, ex- 
pressed in my last, have been realized. She is gone whitlier it is the 
greatest purpose of my life to accomplish a preparation to rejoin her. 
Though I cherish a spirit of submission and resignation to the will of the 
Great Disposer of events and am consoled v,ith the assured belief that, all 
the sin and sorrow and pains of this life being escaped, she is now enjoying 
a blissful immortality ; yet, of all the afflictions I have experienced — and 
many of them have been rccx:!ntly concentrated in bitter draughts — this is 
the bitterest cup of all. She was so beautiful, so intellectual, so purely 
amiable, and, withal, so romantically tender in her lovo of mo, that I feel 
as if a part of ray existence has gone out froin me, and that I can never 
m(^re, even when long yeai-s shall have tied forever, think of her without a 
pang. Though I should not obtrude my grief upon othci-s, you, who are 
a futher and have lost beloved children, will appreciate and excuse this un- 
premeditated mention of it. 

Having an opportunity of conveyance in view, I return the lettei-s of 
(Jovemor IV-bb and Mr. Forror, importuning you to stand for the nomina- 
tion for th" T'r.-<idency krovo tl.e Whig National Convention. I have 



HENRY CLAY. 481 

talcen copies of tliem ; but do not feel at liberty, in any case, to make any 
public use of Forrer's without consent. 1 ;nn warranted by his own defiant 
consent, should occasion arise demanding it in my judgment, to publish 
thatof liebb. He may be unwise enough to jtrovoke this ; and it is higlily 
probable some of the brainless original friends of General Taylor may create 
an int.'xorable necessity for it. In the latter case, as my truth may be 
called in question, in reference to my averments in the letter to the Tribune^ 
I shall desire, in view of fortifying myself, to be furnished copies also of 
the letters of Judge Lazelle and Orrin Follett to you on the same subject, 
which I hope you will not fail to furnish me, though of course I will use 
neither of them publicly without the consent of their authors. 

I should have transmitted you a manuscript copy of the letter to the 
Tribune, when it was forwarded, but had not time to transcribe it, and 
was unwilling to put the information of my authorship of it in possession 
of any copyist for the present. I will avow it, however, on any statement 
in it being contested by any responsible person. I read the draught to 
Charles Anderson of Cincinnati and ISlr. llarlan of this place, both whom 
were much pleased with it. The former thinks it will produce an uproar 
in Ohio against her delegates to the Philadelphia Convention, and the latter 
is apprehensive that the Taylorites will be otiended. ]5oth conjec^tures will 
doubtless be veriHed, if the prudence of the parties does not get the better 
of tiieir passions. 

In the last week or two, the prospects of a reaction in Ohio, without 
which General Taylor stands no chance of obtaining her electoral vote, 
seem to be improving. The former political course of Mr. Van Buren, 
one of almost abject subservience to what, in the political cant of the day, 
is termed " the slave power," who once gloried in the title of " the Northern 
man with Southern principles," renders him extremely assailable and vul- 
nerable, and Ms nomination by the Buffalo Convention has sensibly checked 
the inroads which the Free Soil party seemed likely to make upon the 
■\Vhig party. Tlie defection in our ranks is nevertheless quite formidable, 
however the zealots may attempt to delude others or themselves. 

Corwin has taken the stump. He was at "Wilmington last Saturday 
and will be at Xenia on Wednesday next. These are seats of great defec- 
tion, embracing many besides that good people, the Quakers, who reside 
in both neighborhoods. Corwin and the people of these and other places, 
were exceedingly desirous of inducing me to join him in his tour, if I may 
judge from the number of pressing letters addressed me in that behalf, and 
their advertisements of me in newspapers and handbills on faith. I would 
not have omitted the slightest of the last attentions and duties I owed my 
poor lost child, to have been the victor of Buena Vista. I cert.'tinly do 
prefer Tavlor to Cass or Van Buren, and commend him to others in pref- 
erence to either ; but it is not a little curious that so many of those who 
charged me with ruining the Whig party because I preferred a statesman 
to a warrior for President, now prefer me to advocate the pretensions of 

31 



482 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

the warrior to themselves, Tiiis arises not merely from the desire to 
commit whom they call "Clay men" to the support of Taylor; but from 
the fact that the people Avill scarcely give ear to the original Taylorites, 
thouLrh willing to hear what can be honestly said in favor of Taylor's elec- 
tion. I tliiuk it will not be long before " printed principles" and capable 
statesmen, whom so many deemed unavailable, will get into fashion. I 
wrote to Corwin, that if it were not rather a theme for commiseration than 
merriment, I should laugh to see the great moral hero of the times, author 
of the great anti-war speech, sweating on the stump, giinding, pounding, 
and ci)nip(jun(ling materials more inflammable than gunpowder, to be let 
oil" in li<'U of the " spontaneous combustion'' fizzle — for so tar it is a fizzle in 
Ohio, and in the slang phrase " it is n't any thing else." But if after all, 
availability prove unavailable, and we get beaten, there will be one conso- 
lation even in that, which will be some compensation for so woeful a disas- 
ter, namely, that it will forever (or at least ought to) put a stop to the up- 
startisin of mere military men claiming the highest offices. 

But I always fret myself upon this theme, and fearing I bore you with 
it, must cease. As ever, truly yours. 



LETTER XXT, 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B, STEVENSON. 

Ashland, September 4, 1848. 

Mv Dear Sir — I received your favors of the 10th and 29th ultimo, 
dated at Frankfort, and should have written to you before, but for the 
hope excited by the last, that I might possibly see you here prior to your 
return to Cincinnati, which, I regret, has not been realized. Should you at 
any time come this way, I re(|uost that you will oblige me by coming di- 
rectly to my house, and making it your own during your sojourn. 

I tender you cordial condolence on your late great bereavement. My own 
heart has so often bled from similar afflictions, that T can easily compre- 
hend th'i poignancy of your grief, and heartily sympathize with you. Time 
alone, my dear sir, and your dependence on Ilim who, having given her 
to you, has seen fit to take her away, can mitigate your sorrows. 

I perused with much interest and attention the copy which you se-nt mo 
of the letter which you had kindly addressed to the Tribune, It is all that 
I wished it to be, and I most lieartily thank you for it. I do not doubt 
thai Mr. Creeley will cheerfully publish it. I feel much solicitude that my 
motives and conduct, in consenting that my name should be considered by 
the Thiladelphia Convention, should be rightly understood and justified be- 
before the public. This friendly act of yours accomplishes all I desire in 
respect to Ohio, I shall regret very much, however, if it should involve 
yuu in any controvei-sy with any of the parties concerned. I doubt, how- 
ever, if it will have that effect; for, from what I hear from Ohio, the course 



HENRY CLAY. 483 

of its delegates to the Convention seems to be severely censured, and I im- 
agine that they will be quite willing that it should not form a topic of 
prominent and prolonged discussion in the newspapers.* I am very sorry 
that lean not lay my hands upon the letters of Messrs. Lazelle and Follett. 
I am afraid that I have destroyed them, which, in consequence of the great 
number of the letters I receive, is the mode by which I dispose of them. 
Should ciicunistances hereafter make it necessary, you may refer to the 
names of the lion. John Sloane of Wooster, (one of the best and truest 
men I have ever known in Ohio), and Mr. Van Tromp, of Lancaster, as 
gentlemen who strongly urged me to allow my name to go before the Con- 
vention. I am sure that neither of them will take any exception to such 
a reference. 

I am daily assailed, and have received many, many letters fi-om all quar- 
ters making inquiries of me as to my purposes in respect to the support of 
General Taylor, most of them urging me to come out with a public dec- 
laration in his favor, but some expressing a contrary wish. I have an- 
swered none of them, with two or three exceptions, to which I have re- 
turned confidential replies. I adhere to my purpose of silence and reserve. 
It is quite probable, as you inferred, that I may be constrained to vote 
for him, as I can vote for nobody else now before the public. But if I do, 
I shall do it quietly. I wish to lead or mislead no one. Should he be 
elected, and disappoint the Whigs, I desire to be spared any reproaches 
for having induced any of them to vote for him. Besides, I could not, in 
justice to myself, come out in any speech or letter, in his support, without 
assigning such reasons for niy course as would operate, perhaps, as much 
against him as for him. 

I have received two strange letters ft-om Ohio, one from Cincinnati, and 
the other from Georgetown, inviting me to become an independent can- 
didate. They were signed by several persons who were unknown to me. 
I scarcely need say that I positively, but respectfully, declined the invi- 
tation. I think it probable that one or both of my answers will be pub- 
lished. One of them (the letters to me) spoke in terms of strong con- 
demnation of the Ohio delegates. 

I think Mr. Corwin has put himself in a position of some embarrassment. 
After all that he has said against the Mexican war, etc., and in lavor of 
Free Soil, he will find it, I should think, difiicult to reconcile all his friends 
to the support of one whose attitude must necessiirily render him hostile 
to the proposed restriction on New Mexico and Califirnia, and whose 
ofiicial influence will be directed silently, if not actively against it.f Hav- 

* Mr Clay's conjecture was verified. Tho facts stated in the letter were too pal- 
pably known to tho people of Ohio to be disputed or encountered by any of the dele- 
gates, and they pursued the best policy for them — the policy of silence. — T. B. S. 

■)■ Mr. Clay's reasonini^ hero would be deemed lo.ijical in rcprard to General Taylor, 
but that ho ignores the Allison letter, by which tho General was virtually pledged 
not to veto any constitutional act of Congress ; and his reasoning as to Mr. Corwin 



484 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

ing made that question of Free Soil the paramount question of the day, 
can he hereafter justify himself to those who concur with him in refusing 
to support one who is pledi^ed to the piinciple ? Can he resume the lead- 
ership of that party ? Will not somebody else displace him ? 

On the result of the existing contest I can form no satisfactory opinion. 
The elections of this month will throw some additional light upon it. 
Tho.'^e of the last were far from being auspicious to General Taylor. A 
few more such letters as those addressed by him to Charleston, and to Mr. 
Lippai-d, will give him the coup de grace. 

I remain, always, truly, your friend. 



LETTER XXn. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVEXSOX. 

Ashland, September 12, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — I wish briefly to acknowledge and heartily to thank you 
for your favor of the 9th inst. 

I think it probable that the absence of Mr. Greeley from homo account.^ 
for the non-appearance of your letter to him, for which I have eagerly 
looked to the Tribune. I can not doubt his fidelity in all his movements 
up to and including the period of the Philadelphia Convention, :Mr. 
LTIommedieu to the contrary notwithstanding.^ 

I have some curious letters about the course of our friend . which 

I must show you when you give me the pleasure of a visit. 

Nominations, and threats of nominations, of me continue to come to 
me. I have one answer for them all, that I can not possibly accept. 

A Mar\dand Whig elector writes me that that State is in imminent dan- 
ger of falling into the hands of the Locofocos. 

I shall be most happy to converse with you, as you propose, when you 

are here, on any public atTairs. 

Your friend. 

would be conclusive also, but that ho was not possessed of the Aict. known to Mr. 
Corwin, that General T.ayloV, very soon after his return from Mexico, in New Orleans 
assured a gentleman, late of Missouri, formerly of New England, a friend of Truman 
Smith, late U. S. Senator from Connecticut, that having examined the question, he 
considered the "SVilmot Proviso, both a3 a question of power and poliey. settled af- 
firmatively by the uniform precedents of the government in all its departments, from 
its origin. A copy of tho letter of this gentleman to Mr. Smith, reporting his inter- 
view with General Taylor, was attested by Uv. Smith, who endorsed the standing of 
the writer; and this letter was held to bo cvideneo equivalent to a specitic pledge 
that General Taylor would not veto tho Wilmot Proviso. A copy of such a letter 
80 attested, or its substance, w.is probably furnished or made known to most of the 
prominent Wliig speakers of tho North. One was brought under my eyes by two 
euch prominent orators, procured direct from Mr. Smith. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 485 

LEn'ER XXIII. 

MR. CL.VV TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Ashland, October 9, 1848. 

Mv Dear Sir — I received your favor of the 2d. I saw, with pleasure, 
that the Tribune liad at hist pulilished your letter, the delay having proba- 
bly arisen from Mr. (Jreeley's absence. It was republished in the Observer 
and Reporter, and I am very glad that it is upon the record. The public 
mind is now so encfiossed with the Presidential election, that it docs not 
attract so mu(!h attention as it would have done at any other time ; but it 
will tell with the thinking part of the community. 

I think it hardly worth while to send you by the mail the letters to which 

I reiorred respecting our tVic-nd . I will reserve them for some 

cozy evening which I hope you will ere long pass with me. 

As to General Taylor's last letter to Mr. Allison, I don't think much of 
it. He began with the silly, if not presumptuous, hope that the two parties 
would vie with each other in supporting him. Hence he courted both, and 
was to be an umpire between them. To the Whigs lie said, " I am a Whig, 
and ^vould have voted for Clay." To the Democrats, " I am not an ultra- 
Whig, and will make no pledges." As the prospect of getting Democratic 
votes has declined, he has become more Whig ; and if the canvass were 
postponed a few months longer, he would be an ultra-Whig. 

He gave to the Louisiana delegation no authority to withdraw his name, 
if not nominated at Philadelphia ; but, after he was nominated, it was quite 
convenient and very prudent to ratify their act. But suppose another bad 
been nominated, would there have been any ratification I I pause for a reply. 

I can form no satisfactory opinion as to the issue of the contest. If 
Geneial Taylor loses Ohio, I think he will lose the election. I believe 
Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut all doubtful. He will 
now, I think, get New York. As to Ohio, do not be too confident of Mr. 
Corwin's fine speeches ; they tell better f:om the stump than at the polls. 
When were we more certain than in 1842 ? Besides, it is impossible but 
that his moral position has been weakened. 

I have succeeded, and I rejoice, in preventing my name from disturbing 
the canvass. They want me to go further, but I won't. 

What do you think ? I had a pressing letter from Governor Bebb to 
attend the Hamilton Convention, as the first of Mr. Corwin's friends ad- 
dressed ! I am, faithfully, your friend. 



LETTER XXIV. 

THOMAS B. STEVENSON TO MR. CLAY. 

Cincinxati, October 25, 1848. 
My Dear Sir — On this sheet you have a copy of Mr. L'Hommedieu's 
intended address to his constituents, but which was suppressed in the Ga- 



48G CORRESPONDENCE OF 

zette office. In transcribing it, I inserted reference letters in brackets, in- 
ten<ling to append some notes ; but I forego doing so at present, believing 
you will not require any aid to an understanding of the entire document, 
which falls very far short, in my judgment, of achieving the successful de- 
fense of the writer for his course as explained by himself. 

In haste, but as ever, truly yours. 

[The following is a copy of an address, written by S. S. L'llommcdieu, 
Whif>' delegate from the first Congressional Distiict of Ohio (Cincinnati), 
to the Whig National Convention, which assembled in Philadelphia, June 
V, 1848. The address was inclosed under cover to ''Win. D. Gallagher, 
Gazette office, Cincinnati, Ohio," and was duly received by him, he being 
at the time associate editor (with Judge Wright, senior editor).- I have 
understood from Mr. L'Uommedieu tliat Mr. Gallagher, under advice of 
others, did not think ])roper to iniblish it, as desired by the writer. I have 
seen this address, for the first time, this day, though Mr. L'llommedieu had 
in conversation stated its contents to me a few weeks ago. I was elected 
Alternate Delegate, to serve in case of Mr. L'llommedieu's failure in any 



case 



^ * 



Passing by all the other cumulative grounds of defense, some of them 
simjily absurb, and none of them conclusive, I will notice ht-re but one on 
which Mr. Lllommedieu rests his justification. He says, " No instructions 
were given me by the Convention from whom I received the appointment 
of delegate," etc. This defense is merely technic.d, and is a palpable 
evasion of the substantial point itself suggests. It is true, that no instruc- 
tions in the form of resolutions were given by the District Convention, 
simply because, considering the circumstances under which the appointment 
was granted and accepted, such instructions were deemed sui)eifiuous, and, 
moreover, would have implied a distrust of the fidelity of the appointee, 
whose antecedents were well known, and whose preference for Mr. Clay, 
and anxiety to be chosen the delegate distinctively as a "Clay man," over 
the candidates in the interest of all the other Presidential aspirants, were 
equally notorious. The extraordinary circumstanics attending his election, 
such, jierhaps, as seldom or never attended a simihu- transaction, were pe- 
culiarly significant, and more emphatically expressive of the will of his 
constituents than could have been conveyed in an ordinary resolution of 
instructions, which usually signifies a mere preference of an individual. 
.Before the Convention would proceed to ballot for a delegate, the candidates 
were severally required to piesent themselves and define their position and 
preferences with respi-ct to a nominee tor the Presidency. 

Mr. L'lloiuinedieu presented himself as the friend of Mr. CIny. The 
qualification with which he says in his address he announced his prefer- 

• Hero ended tlio note prefixed to the copy of Mr. L'llommcdieira address trans- 
mitted to Mr. Clay. The succeeding paragraph is now (1856) added. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 487 

encc, was regardeJ as merely n piece of electioneerinof diploniacy, intended 
to soften ojjposition to himself in the Convention. It certainly could not 
be Iicld to Mild the Convention, nor permitted to be reserved as a justifica- 
tion for disobeying the will of constituents, which he perfectly understood 
from many unequivocal evidences besides his appointment as ddci^^ate, 
but which he ii,niored at Philadelphia. Judg-e Spencer, a gentleman of 
commanding ability and universal popularity, avowed his preference for 
Mr. Corwin. lion. N. G, Pendleton addressed the Convention, and was 
accepted and voted for by the friends of General Taylor. General AVade 
declared for General Scott. After the preceding candidates had addressed 
the Convention, its proceedings were delayed, in order to send for the ven- 
erable Judge Burnet. He liad long been confined to his house by a 
crijipled limb, but was at length brought in with his crutches, when he 
addressed the Convention as a candidate for delegate, believed to be in the 
interest of Judge McLean. All the candidates being heard, each one hav- 
ing signified his individual preference of a candidate for the Presidency, 
and the preference of each diti'ering from all the rest, the balloting was 
then proceeded with, and resulted in the choice of Mr. L'lLimraediou, 
beating the whole field of opponents for an appointment which, had the 
other candidates, like himself, preferred Mr. Clay, would probably have 
been bestowed on either of his competitors, rather than on him. And the 
election of the alternate delegate was not less, if not more significant and 
conclusive of the will of the Whigs of the District in favor of Mr Clay. 
Owing to the number of scattering votes, a choice was not effected on the 
first ballot. On the second ballot, the contest lay between Judge Hart and 
mvself. Judge Hart was deservedly popular, personally, in the city and 
County. I was comparatively little known personally, and had only that 
morning returned to the cily from a visit to Kentucky, totally ignorant, 
till I entered the Convention, that any one had ever thought of me as a 
representative, primary or secondary, of the Whigs in the District in the 
National Convention. But the preference of the Blitor of the Atlas for 
Mr. Clay was too well known to be doubted or questioned ; and I was the 
only candidate voted for who was not required to avow, in person or by 
proxy, his preference ; for such a requisition upon me was smiled at as 
supurtluous. I was elected. And, had Providence permitted my attend- 
ance at the Philadelphia Convention, I should have insisted on the will of 
the District being represented by the vote of the delegate, and endeavored 
to frustrate (perhaps unavailingly, but still resolutely) the intrigue by which 
the choice of Ohio was unquestionably nullified. I have set down these 
thino-s here, because, although they may now be deemed needless refer- 
ences, they possess a certain historic value. Ohio was irrecoverably lost to 
the Whi<TS ; and the cause of her political downfall is clearly traceable to 
the disobedience of her delegation in the Philadelphia Convention of 1848 
to the popular will. — ^T. B. S.] 



488 CORRESPONDENCE OF 



LETTER XXV. 

8. s. l'hommedieu to the wiiigs of the first congressional district 

OF onio. 

Your delegate to tlio Whig National Convention deems it liis duty to 
make report to the Whigs who honored him with the appointment, and to 
notice some of the various influences made to bear in producing a result 
not altogether satisfactory to many true and tried Whigs of Ohio. 

It is Well known to you all, that when honored with the appointment of 
delegate, my first choice was Henry Clay, though I had many misgivings 
as to his availability. Between the day of our Convention and that of my 
departure for Philadelphia, not less than five hundred Clay Whigs of Cin- 
cinnati spoke to me despondingly of Mr. Clay's prospects, and cautioned 
me not to let my feelings run away with my judgment. On the boat, be- 
tween Cincinnati and Pittsburg, 1 met with a number of delegates from 
Indiana, who had been chosen on account of their fiiendship to Mr. Clay. 
They all agreed in representing that in the several districts which they 
came from, there was a general despondency in relation to Mr. Clay's pros- 
pects before the people. At Pittsburg I remained a day, and had oppor- 
tunity of meeting with a number of prominent Whigs of western Pennsyl- 
vania, who unanimously concurred in opinion that !Mr. Clay's election was 
out of the question, and that again to make him our standard-bearer, would 
be sure to shipwreck the party. At l^allimore I stopped nearly a week, 
without meeting with a Whig who thought Mr. Clay stood any chance. 
In min<rlinir freely with the Barnburners and Old Hunkers of the Demo- 
cratic Convention, I heard the sentiment often expressed that there was 
but one movement could be made to unite the discordant elements of 
the Locofoco party — and that was the nomination of Mr. Clay by the Whig 
Convention. 

At Washington City I found every thing doing that could be done, by 
momb.-rs of Conmess from the whole South, and by not a few from the 
North, to produce the belief on the minds of delegates, that no other man 
but General Taylor Avould answer for the nominee, and that, with every 
other candidate, our defeat was certain to follow. 

It became clear to my mind, that to bring before the Convention, as a 
candidate, any one of the distinguished civilians whose names stood out 
promiiK'iitly, with an exi)ectation of success, was hopeless. Such being the 
state of the case, there seemed to be no course left for those who were not 
satisfied to have General Taylor the candidate, but to push forward (ien- 
eral Sci>tt. huring my stay inWashington, I met not a single man, in or 
out of Congress, that spoke favorably to the nomination of Mr. Clay. 

At Pliiladulpliia I remained a day or two, and there found the almost 
unanimous feeling to be in favor of the availability of General Taylor. 
About ten days before the Convention, I went to New York, and there the 



HENRY CLAY. 489 

general sentiment was adverse to Mr. Clay's nomination. In a conversation 
•with one of Mr. Clay's most strenuous sui)porters in New York — a gentle- 
man (onnocteil witli, and at the head of, the ])riiicipa] Clay WliiLf l)ai)er — 
he q-ave it as his decided ('])inion, that Mr. Clay \»ionld not g.-t the nomi- 
nation. He thought it advisable, however, for Mr. Clay's friends to a<lhere 
to him in Convention, and, by that course, allow the nomination to fall on 
General Taylor. This gentleman was the tirst one, fiom Cincinnati to New 
York, that I found willing that Mr. Clay should be adhered to. His coun- 
sel, I thought, lacked wisdom, if he did not lack sincerity. 

From New York I returned to AVasliington, with the hope that I might, 
in some degree, be instrumental in counteracting the intluences there 
brought to bear on Western delegates as they passed on theii' way to Phila- 
delphia. I was fortunate enough to meet with most of those from Ohio and 
Indiana, to v,-hom I imparted the results of my observations and inquiries 
at different points. Here, likewise, I met with several of Mr. Clay's ardent 
and sincere friends from Kentucky, to whom I expressed my sirong connc- 
tion of mind, that Mr. Clay could not and would not receive the nomina- 
tion, and suggested the propriety of withdrawing his name from the 
canvass. 

Thus matters stood, until we met in Convention. It w\is soon apparent 
that, if the race was confined to Mr. Clay and General Taylor, the latter 
would receive the nomination by a large vote, and that the only slight hope 
was for Ohio to adhere to General Scott, and by so doing, form a nucleus. 
On the morning of the I'ih instant, before the hour had arrive! for the as- 
sembling of the Convention, the Ohio delegates, twenty-three in number, 
met at a room in Fourth-street, and after a full and free interchange of 
views, twenty-one united in the opinion that (General Scott was the choice 
of Ohio, under the circumstances, and they resolved to adhere to him. 
During the progress of the Convention, several meetings were held by the 
friends of Mr. Clay and of the free State candidates, for the purpose of con- 
centrating their votes. Strong appeals were made to Ohio to cast her 
united vote for Mr. Clay, in the forlorn hope that it would give him the 
nomination. We had satisfied ourselves fully, that if we changed position 
and voted for ^Ir. Clay, enough votes would follow from Indiana, Illinois, 
Iowa, and Wisconsin, to give General Taylor the nomination, besides 
this, we were convinced that if an impression was made that Ohio was 
going for Clay, there were enough delegates in Convention from New En- 
gland and New York who would have wheeled about and given the nom- 
ination to General Taylor. There weie, in my opinion, at least twenty-five 
or thirty delegates in the Convention who were desirous Taylor should 
be the nominee, and, at the same time, diil not venture, in any of the bal- 
lotings, to give him their votes. Rather than he should have failed, most 
of them, probably, would have cast their votes for him. 

There were not a few " outsiders'^ froitf the West and North, anxious to 
see nominated a prominent civilian from the West, whose opinions on the 



490 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

slaveiy question were known to be in accordance with their own. Finding 
there was no hope of such a nomination, they mostly pui*sued a course cal- 
cuhited to lead to the success of the Southern candidate. They wanted no 
man to occupy the midfile ground, but preferred tlie other extreme, in the 
hope to produce division in tlie AVhig ranks of the north, and thereby en- 
able themselves to build up a prominent Northern party. 

I have been thus particular for several reasons. Many of Mr. Clay's 
warm, thouirh over-zealous friends, denounce Ohio for not cominfj to his 
rescue. They declare that Ohio deserted her favorite at a time when she 
could have made him the standard-bearer of the Whig party. This is 
wronof, and it is equally undeserved and uncalled for. C)liio could not, if 
she had thought it best, have given Mr. Clay the nomination, ilis own 
Kentucky sent to the Convention a majority of delegates opposed to his 
nomination ; and on the last ballot, none of her delegates, save Mr. llarlan, 
cast a vote for him. 

I have fallen under the censure of many of Mr. Clay's friends, and have 
been charged with deserting him jmd violating instructions. In this, in- 
justice has been done me. From boyhood to the present moment I have 
been a sincere friend to that groat and much-abused man. Xo instructions 
were given me by the Convention from whom I received the appointment 
of delegate. On the contrary, I distinctly stated to that Convention, much 
as I preferred Mr. Clay, I should not cast the vote of the district for him 
if defeat to the "V\Tii£: cause should stare me in the face. 

It is not to be disguised that there was much cause for dissatisfaction on 
the part of the Wliigs fif the North and West at the course of the Whigs 
of the South, in pushing upon them, at this time, the nomination of a 
Southern man. The garment is cut out by Democratic States of the 
South, and the Whip States of the North are required to make it up to a 
good fit. For one, I say let us fall to work and make the coat. But for 
the next thirty years, let the North follow the cutting branch. Better for 
have honest Old Zack for President than the dough-faced general, who would 
probablv involve the country in an endless war for Canada, Cuba, ami Yu- 
catan. With the exception of two or three Ohio delegates, their "sober 
second thoughts" have brought them to the conclusion that it is best to go 
fur Ta\h«r and Fillmore. 

Your obedient servant. 

New Youk, Juno 13, 18-18. 



LETTER XXVI. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS \i. STEVENSON. 

AsnLAxn, October 29, 1848. 
Mv Dear Sir — I duly received your favor of the 23d inst. I have 
some iutenti(.)n o!" passing the ensuing winter at the South, and if 1 go, it 



HENRY CLAY. 491 

will be between the middle and last of December. In the mean time, with 
the exception of about a week that I may be at Louisville (but when J can 
not now say) I shaR be generally at home. I hope that you will make your 
proposed visit to me soon after the Presidential election. 

I lead with attentive interest your reflections on the gloomy state of pul)- 
lic alVairs and the public mind, and I share in your apprehensions of the 
future. Knowing, however, the proneness of men of advanced age to look 
upon their own latter times unfavorably, and to draw disadvantageous com- 
parisons between them and the earlier periods of their lives, I have not al- 
lowed myself to indulge in those gloomy feelings. But the condition of 
age is not apj)licable to you. It is undeniable that the last twenty years 
of our public career have been marked by violence, fraud, corruption, and 
shameful disregard of principle. In studying the history of our British 
ancestoi-s we find similar periods; and yet that nation ultimately purified 
itself, at least to a considerable extent, and got right again. I entertain 
hopes that our country may .-dso recover, although I hardly indulge any 
expect ition of living to witness its convalescence. 

I have also received your favor of the 26th, transmitting Mr. L'llomme- 
dieu's vindieation. I agree with vou that it is most lame and imijotent. 
That a man knowing as well as he did the wishes of the community which 
he represented, should allow himself to be diverted from his duty by con- 
versations in steam-boats, stages, and taverns, proves, at least, that he had 
not any very strong sense of the obligations under which he was placed. 
I suspect that he had a predisposition to defeat my nomination. xVt all . 
events, he appears very promptly to have come into the support of the 
nomination, unacceptable as he knew it to be to the people of Ohio. He 
appears also to have been a ready and willing listener to the Taylor ar- 
guments. Who but himself believes, really, that there would have been 
any union between the Barnburners and Old Hunkers, if I had been 
nominated ? And who can believe that Jive hundred of mi/ friends in Cin- 
cinnati, before he left it, cautioned him against voting for me ? AVhat did 
he expect to do with that nucleus for Scott of which he speaks ? But I 
forbear. 

I regret extremely that your great State is now suflfering from the way- 
ward course of its delegation, and I wish that years may not elapse be- 
fore it again attains the lufty eminence on which it lately stood. 

Well ; the election is nigh at hand, and fact will soon su])ersedc all 
speculation. 

I am inclined to think that Cass will be elected, contrary to my wishes. 
I reserve for the occasion of your contemplated visit, to which I look 
forward with pleasure, many things which I have not leisure now to write. 

Your friend. 



492 CORRESPONDENCE OF 

LEITER XXVn. 

MR. CLAV TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

[Private.) 

Ashland, December 19, 1848. 

My Deau Sir — On the eve of my departure for New Orleans, I have 
time only brielly to acknowleije the receipt of, and cordially to thank you 
for your fiiendl}' letter, transmitting slips, etc. The article from the Chron- 
icle* was composed with proper caution and due consideration. 

Greeley writes me from Washington that the Free Soil question will be 
certainbj adjusted, at this session, on the basis of admitting die newly ac- 
quired territory as one or two States into the Union. 

Should that event occur, it will exercise some influence on my dispo- 
sition to return to the 8en:ite, should the office be within my power. It 
will leave none but the old questions of Tariff, Internal improvements, 
etc., on which I have heretofore so often addressed both branches of 
Congress. 

Wishing you health, happiness, and every blessing, 

I am, ever faithfully, your fiiend. 



LETTER XXV ill. 



MR. CLAY TO TUOMAS B. STEVENSON. 



Ashland, April 21, 1849. 

Mr Dear Sir — It has been a good while since I heard froni'vou. Tlie 
last letter I wrote to you was from New Orleans, transmitting a letter 
which I hoped might benefit you at Washington ; but as I have seen no 
annunciation of your name for any appointment, I fear that any ai)])lication 
in your behalf, if one were made, has been unsuccessful.f From the gen- 
eral character of the appointments which I have observed, I a]iprehend 
that thi-y have been pretty much confined to the Taylor ukmi, to the exclu- 
sion of the friends of other candidates. Such a course, if it be adopted, 
will be both unwise and unjust. 

I observe that the newspapers are stating that I am to dolivtr an agri- 

* An article in which his return to the Senate was urged. The Chronicle was 
then under my editorial direction, and tlio article was from my pen. — T. B. S. 

f An oiiiiiioiit pcntlcrnan of Kontiieky, dcsirinjj to benefit nie. by procurinp; an ap- 
pointment plaeinf,' me in cliargc of a bureau at Wn-sliington, procured a number of 
recommendations before I was advised of the movement, of whicli ilr. Clay's was 
one. It was sicoiidcd by every Wliig member of Congress from Kentucky. Ohio, and 
Indiana, witli two or three exception.s, as I was told, and by many other prominent 
citizens. A senator informed mo that they never were even opened in the department 
in wliieh they were filed ; and I was afterward really glad that I was not indebted 
for even a te/»/fcof any appointment from tliat Admiiii.stration. and have never ceased 
regretting that 1 permitted others to make an application to it. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 493 

cultural address at Cincinnati duriiiir the present year. Sucli a slatenient 
is without any authority from nir, and I am totally at a loss to know Imw 
it came to be made. Will you do mo the favor to see the managers of the 
Society, and let them know, if they do not already, that I have made no 
such en^jagoment, nor can I ? I have neither time, taste, nor, perhaps, 
talents for compo-^itions suited to such occasions. 

I returned home in good health, which, I thank God, I continue to enjoy. 
But I have not regained entirely my lost flesh. 

I remain, ever truly, your friend. 



LETTER XXIX. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSOJT. 

ASULAKD, April 26, 1849. 
My Dear Sir — Being about to go to Louisville, and to be absent from 
home a week, I hasten to make a brief acknowledgment of your favor of 
the 24th. There are tojncs in it about which I should like to write, or 
rather talk, a great deal, if I had an opportunity. 

With respect to the expression of the feelings of the President in regard 
to me, described in your letter, do read the inclosed letter, received by me 
also this day (returning it by mail after perusing it) from Colonel B. H. 
Payne, just returned at its date from the city of Washington to New Or- 
leans. I have known him long, and always regarded him as a man of 
truth. There is no alternative but that of there existing some mistake, or 
some insincerity on the part of high functionaries. Charity and hope in- 
duce me to trust that it is the former. 

I shall not be a candidate for the Convention.* There are many reasons 
why I think I should not be ; but it will be sufficient to say that the session 
of that body will run into the session of Congress, and expose me to a 
winter's journey to Washington. 

I shall be most happy to meet you again, and here, if practicable. 

Your friend. 



LETTER XXX. 

MR. CLAV TO THOMAS D. STEVENSOX. 

{^Confidential^ 

Asni.AXD, June 18, 1849. 

My Dear Sir — I received your letter, and learn with regret that you 
have al-andoned your trip to Kentucky. 

Till- mission to Portugal lias been tendered to my son James in a hand- 
some manner, and very creditably to the President. James's situation, in 

* The State Convention called to frame a new Constitution of government for 
Koutucky.— T. B. S. 



494 CORRESPONDENCE OP 

a pecuniary point of view, is one of perfect independence, and he has nc 
need of any office as a means of support ; but he has determined to accept 
the appointment, which he could not well decline, being unoccupied at 
present, and there existing no impediment to his going abroad. I have 
received from General Taylor quite a friendly letter. 

My views in taking a seat in tlie Senate, if I am spared, remain the same 
as when I saw you. I shall go there with a detennination to support any 
Whio- measures for which I have heretofore contended, and in a state of 
mind and feelings prepai-ed to judge fairly and impartially of the measures 
of the Administration. I shall not place myself in any leading position, 
either to support or oppose it. But I shall rather seek to be a calm and 
quiet looker on, rarely speaking, and when I do, endeavoring to throw oil 
on the troubled waters. 

^Many of the appointments of the Administration have given much dis- 
satisfaction in various localities ; and if it be true, as asserte<.1, that the 
President leaves selections for office to the respective Secretaries, it is con- 
trary to usage, very exceptionable, and I think unconstitutional. At last, 
however, I think that the true character of the Administration will be fixed 
and judged of by its measures of public policy. 

I agree with you in believing that more difficulty will be encountered in 
fixing the boundaries of Texas, than in deciding the question of the intro- 
duction of slavery into the new Ten-itories. 

"Whatever may be the ultimate purposes of Colonel Benton, I wish him 
lieailily success in his effort to sustain himself in Missouri, although I doubt 
whether he will do so. The question of slavery in the slave States is one 
around which many strong prejudices, supported by long habit and power- 
ful interests, real or imaginary, cluster. I have been mortified, but not 
surpiised, at the course Kentucky is likely to take about it. Tlie truth is, 
that many of our leading men, who had been favorable to gradual emanci- 
pation, have suppressed, modified, or abandoned their opinions. The Gov- 
ernor* is quite dumb on the perilous subject. 

^ly health continues good, for one who has been five or six months in 

the midst of cholera. That epidemic now prevails in Lexington, but with 

less violence than in 1833. 

I remain truly your friend. 



LETTER XXXL 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

AsnLANP, June 30, 1849. 
My Dear Sir — I received your two favors of the 25th and 26th instant. 
I tender you sincere condolence on the death of Vr. Combs.f It was dis- 
tressing that he could not reach your house before his demise. 

* Jolin J. Criltcndcii, then Governor of Kentucky. — T. B. S. 

f My fatlier-in-huv, Dr. EnnLs Coiubs. formerly of Montgomery County, Kentucky, 



HENRY CLAY. 495 

Accordinc^ to my recollection, Colonel Benton was pleased with, and ap- 
proved all that was done to admit Missouri into the Union. And if he 
ever reproached me with my agency in the matter, I have forirotten it. 
His nomination, in certain places, for the Presidency in 1852, may tend to 
his maintaining himself at home, which, I apprehend, he will have great 
dilliculty in doing. I do not think that, if I were in your place, I would 
say any thing at present to mar his present exertions. As for myself, I 
should be sorry if my name were in any way now, if ever, brought out in 
connection with the Presidency. 

I should deplore the event of the Administration being thrown into the 
minoi-ity in the House of Representatives. It would be bad for them, bad 
for the Whig party, and bad for the country. Aud it would be a subjec^t of 
nearly equal regret that parties should be so balanced as that a few members, 
strictly belonging to neither, could control the House. I am very apprehen- 
sive that Kentucky will make no addition to our Whig representation in 
the next House, if she can maintain the ground she held in the last. In four 
or five district, where there ought to be no doubt, great uncertainty exists. 

I thank you for the information communicated about Mr. Chase.* I for- 
merly knew him in Washington very well, and met him in Frankfort lately. 

With regard to political affairs in Ohio, I fear that it will be a long, long 
time before the Whigs will be secure in the ascendancy. They never can 
be without the Western Reserve ; and the problem is, how is that to be re- 
united ? All this difficulty would have been avoided, if General Taylor 
ha'l not been nominated. What responsibility has not its delegation incur- 
red by the strange course it pursued in the Philadelphia Convention ! 
Among other consequences, one is, that it postpones indefinitely, if it has 
not blighted forever, any prospects of Mr. Corwin's future elevation. 

I think it probable that your conjectures are correct in regard to the 
President's feelings toward me. I have been a little provoked by the ad- 
veitisement of me in the Jiepublic,^ a paper, by-the-by, which I do not 
take. That, and other circumstances, demonstrate that some alarm has 
seized them at Washington. As for any calculation which is made upon 
my poor support, all that I have ever said, all that I have ever thought, 
was, that I should take my seat in the Senate prepared to support Whig 
measures, prepared to oppose Locofoco measures, and in a state of mind to 
ju'lcre fairly and impartially of any new measures. The mission to I'ortu- 
gal, which, in fact, only rectifies iu one son, an injustice which was done 
by Taylor to another [Colonel Clay], will not weigh a feather with me. 

The cholera still lingers with us, but it is mild and forbearing. I have 
as yet, I thank God, lost no one. I am truly your friend. 

then of MiasourL He died on the Ohio River, on his way to visit his children in 
Cincinnati and Kentucky. — T. B. S. 

* Salmon P. Chase, then latoly chosen U. S. Senator by a coalition, for the distri- 
bution of ofiBces, between the Abolitionists and Democrats of the Ohio Legislature. — 
T. B. S. 

f The then Administration organ at Washington. — T. B. S. 



49G CORRESPONDENCE OF 



LETTER XXXII. 



MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Ashland, July 21, 1849. 

My Dear Sir — I received your favor of the iTth, and I am in arrear in 
acknowledging your preceding fevor. I thank you for them both. The 
indisposition of Mrs. Clay and myself was slight and short, and I believe 
had no connection with the epidemic, which has, happily, greatly abated. 

The conduct of the Attorney-General, as reported by our friend, Charles 
Anderson, was reprehensible.* The solution of it is to be found in the ex- 
treme desire at Washington to advance the popularity and interests of the 
Administration. I should have no objection to the publication of all the 
correspondence wliich has passed between the Executive and myself, in re- 
gard to the appointment of my son to the mission to Portugal. It would 
be seen from it, that, while the President has written to me in a perfectly 
friendly manner, I have made no commitment of myself, nor descended to 
any unmanly or unbecoming solicitation. 

The subject of Canada, I fear, will be forced upon the public considera- 
tion. I do not beheve, now that all protection to its products is withdrawn 
by Great Britain, and her navigation laws are repealed, and the ports of 
the Provinces are freely opened to foreign Powers, that the colonial con- 
nection can long remain. These measures do substantially, if not in form, 
make Canada an independent power. "With a government in the colonies, 
a Legislature and a Ministry, modeled after those in the parent country, it 
will, I think, soon be perceived that the appointment of the Governor and 
the veto reserved to the Crown, are inconvenient and impracticable forms. 

The important question is, what is to become of Canada ? I adhere to 
the opinion, that the happiness of both the United States and Canada, will 
be best promoted by the independence of the latter.f But I am willing 
for one now to open a free-trade with her, for the same reason that Groat 
Britain desires such commercial intercourse with us, that is, that she is 
behind us in skill, capital, and the progress of manufoctures. We should 
profit most by opening new fields for our commerce and manufactures, 
and our free trade with Canada would be an exception to the principle 
of protection, which I still think we ought to maintain as to Euiope. 

Such, briefiy, are my views. What those of the people at large are, or 
will be, remains to be seen. I do not know on what data General Scott 
has arrived at the conclusion that a large majority of the people of the 
L^nited Stiites desire the annexation of Canada. 

* Revordy Johnson, Attorney-General of tbe United States, was reported to have 
uttered an indignity to ^[r. Clay, in saying the appointment of bis son would inako 
him, lis a senator, obedient to the Administration, or else prove himself ungrateful for 
a favor ho had solicited. — ^T. B. S. 

f In his anti-Tuxas letter dated at Raleigh, Xorth Carolina, 1844, he advanced tho 
same opinion. — T. B. S. 



HENRY CLAY. 497 

I have some thoughts of passing tliroiigh Cincinnati about the middle 
of next week, on my way, hy Sandusky and Buffalo, to a sea-bath ; but if 
I do, I sliall not stop in your city longer than one night. My intention, if 
I go, is to take the Ridge route ; but I hope that you will keep my secret, 
and give no publicity to my contemplated movement. Your friend. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

Washington, December 21, 1849. 
Mr Dear Sir — 

^ ^ •(€ !|s ^ SJ* •!» 

My relations to the President and his Cabinet are civil and amicable, but 
with all of them not very confidential. 

There is great and bitter complaint against the Administration, from all 
the Whiofs, or nearly all. I do not know what is to come of it. 

My health, my spirits, and my position, all are very good. Much defer- 
ence and consideration are shown me by even political opponents. I shall, 
by a course of calmness, moderation and dignity, endeavor to preserve these 
kindly feelings. 

At present, I have no plans or projects to offer. I shall seize, however, 
any exigency that may arise to do good, if I can. Excuse brevity. 

Your friend. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

■Washington, January 26, 1850. 

My Dear Sir — I thank you for your two last favors. Your political 
spe.ulations are interesting, and will be attentively considered ; but I regret 
that I have not time to interchange views with you. 

I addressed, some days ago, as strong a letter of recommendation of you 
for the office of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (vacated by Mr, Pen- 
rose) to Mr. Meredith, as I could make, or as I ever wrote. Corwiu iu 
person took it to him, and, as he informed me, supported it. I am soriy 
that it did not succeed, but that another was appointed. We shall con- 
tinue our exertions for you, and I wish I could add with better prospects 
of success. Candor obliges me, however, to advise that you should not 
indulge in any very sanguine expectations. Corwin told me that he had 
written to you, which was the cause of my not doing so before. 

There is a bad state of things here on the slavery question. My hopes 
and fears alternate. Possibly I may attempt some adjustment of it. 

Your friend. 
32 



498 CORRESPONDENCE OF 



LETTER XXXV. 



MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVEXSOX. 

"WASHrNGTOX, April 3, 1850. 

My Dear Sir — I received your favor of the 26th. I should write you 
oftener and longer ; but really, company, correspondence, and my public 
duties engross all my time. I have been compelled, in<leed, to decline 
answering the greater part of the letters I receive, or neglect my public 
duties. 

I think, perhaps I ought rather to say that I strongly hope, that the 
slavery question is approaching an amicable adjustment. I believe a bill 
combining the admission of California, and the government of the Terri- 
tories, without the Proviso, could now pass. But there is a diversity of 
opinion whether the subjects shall be separated and put in different bills, 
or be combined together. In the former case, there w^ould be a strenuous 
minority o]iposirig California, and more doubt about the passage of the Ter- 
ritorial bills without the Proviso. 

I do not know what will be Mr. Corwiu's final coui-se. Although our 
friendly intimacy continues, he has not communicated it to me. lie told 
me that he did not mean to speak on the subject. 

I am glad to see that your paper* is conducted with spirit and 
ability. 

You will have seen that Mr. Calhoun is dead. The event, although ex- 
pected, has created much sensation. 

The Administration is ^vithout power. There is not much confidential 
intercourse between the two ends of the Avenue. My own relations to the 
members of it are civil, but cold. 

With constant reirard. 



LETTER XXX\'r. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

TTASniNGTON, April 25, 1850. 
My Dear SrR — I received your favor of the 14th inst. In resjx'ct to 
your desire to engage some of the letter-writers to write occasionally for 
your paper, I regret that my acquaintance with that class of persons is 
very limited. Mr. J. E. Ilarvey and Mr. Francis J. Grund stay at the same 
hotel that I do. The former you know as " Independent" of the North 
American, and I presume the latter, too, by re]>utation. lie is admitted 
to be one of the best letter-writers ; and he (Mr. Grund) has just now 
taken a wonderful liking to me. He ofiered to write to you for nothing, 

• Tiio Maysvillo Ea^le, of which I had then bocomo proprietor and editor. 
— T. B. a 



HENRY CLAY. 499 

but I told him that would not do, and that jou and he must adjust tho 
terms, eto., etc. And there I leave it. 

The rumors so rife of Cabinet changes a week or two ago have ceased, 
and a( ]iie?ent there is no talk of any. It is said that the President told 
bis Cabinet that he likeil them very much, and that they told liim that 
they hked him very mnch, and so thoy agreed that tlic-y would not dis- 
solve that union. ^lost people believe, however, that ere long a change 
will be maile. In the mean time tliere is very little concert and co-oper- 
ation betweeen the Capitol and the White llouse. 

Your friend. 



LETTER XXXVn. 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

AsHLAXD, November 3, 1850. 
My Dear Sir — I received your favor of the 1st inst., and was glad to 
learn from it that Mr. Corwin had tendered to you the head of the Bureau, 
as he had assured me he would do.* As to your decision not to take it, 
I think you are wise, if you have reasonable prospects of an independent 
support where you now are. Office with its uncertain tenure, considered 
as a means of obtaining a livelihood, is, I have always thought, not very 
desirable. 

******** 

I am, faithfully, your friend. 



LETTER XXXVIIL 

MR. CLAY TO THOMAS B. STEVENSON. 

AsHLAXD, May 17, 1851. 

Mr Dear Sir — I received your favor of the 15th. There is no signifi- 
cance whatever to the article which you refer in the Beporter. It was put 
there without my authority or knowledge, and I regretted when I saw it. 

You ask what is to be done if South Carolina secedes. I answer unhesi- 
tatingl}', that the constitution and laws of the United States must continue 
to be enforced there, with all the power of the Union, if necessary. Se- 
cession is treason ; and if it were not — if it were a legitimate and right- 
ful exercise of power — it would be a virtual dissolution of the Union. 
For if one State may secede, every SkUe may secede ; and bow long, in 
such a state of things, could we be kept together ? Suppose Kentucky 

* This tender was an unsolicited kindness; but was made under impressions as to 
my situation and wishes which stimulated tho unavailing exertions to procure me an 
appointment under the Administration of President Fillmore's immediate predeces- 
sor. —T. B. S. 



500 CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY CLAY. 

were to secede ? CouM the rest of tlie Union tolerate a foreign power in 
their very bosom ? There are those who think tlie Union must be pre- 
served and kept together by an exclusive reliance upon love and reason. 
That is not my opinion. I have some confidence in this instrumentality ; 
but depend upon it, that no human government can exist without the 
power of applying force, and the actual application of it in extreme cases. 
My belief is, that if it should be applied to South Carolina, in the event of 
her secession, she would be speedily reduced to obedience, and that the 
Union, instead of being weakened, would acquire additional strength. 

Writing, as you perceive, by an amanuensis, I must be brief, and con- 
clude with assurances of my constant regard. 



INDEX 



PAOB 

Adams, J. Q.— His Death .' 80 

Compliment to Mr. Clay, in an Album 292 

B 

Bayly, Hon. Thomas II. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 425 

Bebb, William. His Letter to Mr. Clay 476 

Bell, Tlon. John. His Compromise Resolutions 159 

His Defense of President Taylor I'fO 

Bentox, Hon. Thomas II. His proof of Abolition of Slavery in Mexico 159 

His affair with Mr. Foote 160 

On the Fugitive Slave Law 396 

His skirmishes whh Mr. Clay 358, 364, 374, 375, 377 

Berkley, Rev. E. F., His Letter on the Religious Character of Mr. Clay 53 

His Discourse at the Funeral of Mr. Clay 445 

Bowie, Hon. Richard J. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 435 

Boyd, Hon. Linn, Speaker, etc 437 

Brooke, Hon. "Walter. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 253 

Brooks, Hon. James. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 430 

Breckinridge, Hon. J. C. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 414 

Butler, Rev. C. M., D. D. His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Clay 256 

c 

Clay, Mr. His Reply to Judge Underwood 1' 

His Raleigh Letter 25 

His Debts paid by friends 40 

Testimonial by Gold and Silver Artisans 42 

" by Ladies of Richmond 43 

" by Ladies of Tennessee 44 

His Plea for famishing Ireland 46 

Letter of thanks from two Irishmen 49 

His Baptism and First Communion 52 

His visit to Cape May, 1847 55 

His Speech on the Mexican War 60 

The Response to the Speech ''2 

On African Colonization "^4 

In Supreme Court '^ 

His last adieu to Mr. Adams 81 

At Philadelphia and Xew York 83 

Mr. Elected to the Senate, 1848 100 



502 INDEX. 

C 

PAOS 

Clay, on Father Malhcw 102 

On Washington's Farewell Address 103 

On the Purchase of Mount Vernon Ill 

His Compromise Resolutions 114 

Review of his great Speech of February 5th and 6th, 1 850 1 32 to 154 

The Great Pacificator 152 

His Definition of a Compromise 150 

Ilis answer to an invitation to celebrate the Anniversary of 1787 157 

Abused by Abolitionists 1 53 

Ou President Taylor's opposition to the report of the Committee of Thir- 
teen 168 

His Eulogy on General Taylor 172 

And Mr. Mason, of Virginia 173 

On the effect of the Constitution on slavery in the Territories 175 

On Abolition agitations 177 

On Mr. Rhett's Speech at Charleston 179 

Defeat of his Bill a Victory ISl 

His position toward the North and South 185 

The man of Compromise 192 

A conspiracy against him 196 

On Nullification 197 

Goes to Newport -00 

Reason of his return to the Senate 203 

The Declaration against Agitation ... 206 

A practical and national man 207 

His last effort for Internal Improvements 203 

Rejects " Constructive Mileage" 215 

Gold Medal presented to him 213 

His declining Health 219 

His reception of Kossuth ^?^ 

His Decline and Death 225 to 223 

Eulogies in the Senate 229 to 255 

His Funeral at the Capitol 255 

Resume of his Life 2G3 to 298 

(Appks'PI.v) Ilis great Speech on his Compromise Resolutions 302 

His Letter on Emancipation 316 

On Emancip.Ttion in a Speech 353 

Fifty-eight Extracts from His Speeches on the Debate on the Compromise 

of 1850 3.i4 to 396 

His Letter, in 1851, to citizens of New York, on the state of the Country. . 402 

His Burial -^^ 

A Letter on Dueling 451 

His Correspondence with Thomas B. Stevenson, Esq 157 to 500 

Calhoun, J. C, Mr. Clay on the Death of 453 

C.\s.s, General. His Resolution and Mr. Clay's Reply 103 

His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 23.) 

Cn.\NOLr.u, Hon. Joseph R. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 422 

Caskie, Hon. John S. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 422 

Clkmens, Hon. Jeremiah. His Eulogy on Mr. Cl.iv 242 

Clincmax, lion. Tiiomas L. His tribute to Mr. Clay 22 

CooPKR, Hon. James. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 244 



INDEX. 503 

E 

PAOS 

EwiNG, Hon. Presley. His Eulogy ou Mr. Clay 419 

F 

Faulkner, Hon. Ciiarlcs James. His I']ulopry on Mr. Clay 432 

FoOTE, Senator, proposes the Committee of Tliirtcen IGO 

Ills affair with Jlr. Benton 160 

FORUER, SamueL His Letter to Mr. Clay 478 

G 

Gentry, Hon. M. P. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 434 

n 

Hale, Hon. John P. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 241 

Harrisox, "William H. Elected President 39 

Ha VEX, Hon. Solomon G. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 429 

Hunter, Hon. Robert M. T. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 233 

J 

Jacksox, General Andrew. His Party 38 

Jones, Hon. George W. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 252 

- . L 

L'HOMifEDiEU, S. S. His Letter to "Whigs of Ohio 488 

Louisville Journal, Tribute to Mr. Clay 23 

P 

Parker, Hon. Samuel W. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 434 

Pearce, Senator, defeated Mr. Clay's Bill 390, 392, 393 

R 

Robertson. Chief Justice, of Kentucky, accepts the body of Mr. Clay from the 

hands of the Senate Committee ■J4i 

EUSK, Senator, and other Senators object to the Compromise Resolutions 126 

S 

Sewart), Hon. "William H. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 247 

Stevenson, Thomas B. His Correspondence with Mr. Clay 455 to 500 

T 

Taylor, General. His Letter to ilr. Clay, announcing the Death of Colonel 

Clay 50 

"Will not submit to Convention 90 

Opposed to the Compromise Measures 166 

Thirteen, Committee of, appointment and Report 161 

Tyler, John, His Treason 39 



504 . INDEX. 



FAOB 



Ukderwood, Judge, His Address to Mr. Clay 16 

His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 229 

Resigns his charge of the Funeral Cortege 440 

V 

Van Arsdale, Rev. Dr. Letter from 129 

Venable, Hon. Abraham W. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 427 

w 

"Walsh, Hon. Thomas Tates. His Eulogy on Mr. Clay 435 

Webster, Daniel, .sanctions Mr. Clay's Compromise Resolutions 157 

His notice of General Taylor's Death 172 

Desires the " "Wilmot" for Congress 174 

Wma Party, Fall of. 88 



THE EXD. 



() 



